ottexec.com/magazine Spring 2019 Inside the OTT Tornado A Whirlwind of New Devices, Apps, and Content Batters Consumers

Is TV Still the Hearth? OTA and OTT BFFs The Screen-Per-Person World Changes Everything A Roll-Out Plan for ATSC 3.0 NextGen Broadcast Does this OTT Make Me Look Fat? What Am I Thinking? Plus-Size Launches Abound Can AI Read Our Minds and Improve Our UX?

Executive Q&A

Guido Meardi, CEO & Co-Founder V-Nova

Ramon Duivenvoorden, CCO 24i Media

Ivan Verbesselt, SVP of Marketing Nagra

Mike Palackdharry, SVP of Strategic Solutions, Limelight Networks

Gideon Gilboa, SVP of Product & Marketing, Kaltura SMARTLY DIGITAL IN THE NEW OTT ERA

Whether you’re a pay-TV operator or a content owner, we can help you thrive in a converging pay-TV and OTT world.

As the lines between pay-TV and OTT continue to blur, the pay-TV industry is transitioning into a paid- for market where the convenience of anytime, on-demand watching on any screen, reigns. Differentiation based on content exclusivity alone is no longer enough.

To grow and thrive, service providers must become ‘smartly digital’. By embracing cloudification, actively claiming the aggregation role and leveraging data-driven principles to define and evolve their consumer propositions, they can embark on a journey of continuous solution renewal to optimize the next phase of growth in a vastly different competitive landscape.

As a trusted partner to the world’s largest media and communications companies and with more than 25 years of pay-TV industry experience, we can help you redefine your strategy toward true digital transformation with innovative solutions that connect people to the content they love.

CONTACT US AT [email protected]

CONNECTING PEOPLE TO THE CONTENT THEY LOVE

DTV.NAGRA.COM Inside this Issue

Case Studies 10 The Birth of a Notion: How The Preview Channel Came to Be by William Sager 15 Over the Top and Through AI to Big Data’s House We Go by Ted Korte 24 2019 OTT Accolades Finalists by Brian Mahony 26 A Labor of Love: How an OTT D2C Provider Is Lifting Millions by Katia Loisel Executive Q&A 12 24i Media’s Ramon Duivenvoordeni, COO 28 V-Nova’s Guido Meardi, CEO & Co-Founder 36 NAGRA’s Ivan Verbesselt, Senior Vice President Marketing 50 Limelight Networks’ Mike Palackdharry, Senior Vice President, Strategic Solutions 54 Kaltura’s Gideon Gilboa, Senior Vice President of Product and Marketing for Media & Telecom Trends & Analysis 6 Is TV Still The Hearth? by Stephen Johnson 8 Consumers and Their Devices: TV in the OTT Era by Charlie Nooney 38 Bringing OTA and OTT Together: A Roll-Out Plan for ATSC 3.0 Broadcast by Fred Baumgartner 44 Why the Content Hub Could be the Answer to Today’s Streaming Wars by Brice Clinton 46 Is OTT Really More Expensive Than Other TV Buys? by David Wiesenfeld 58 7 Predictions for Online Video in 2019 by Jim O’Neill Executive Insights 4 The Age of Plus Upon Us by Kurt Michel 14 Content Curation Is Key by Michael Nagle 30 OTT: The Most Misunderstood Acronym in by Jon Sumber 32 A Call for More User Control Over the Streaming UX by Virginia Juliano 34 OTT End Game: Allow Major Players to Dominate, or Change the Rules? by David Price 35 How Publishers Can Capitalize on AI This Year by David Mowrey 48 Reigning in the Complexity of Monitoring OTT Streams by Erik Otto 52 The State of the OTT business by Mark Donnigan Best Practices 5 What Is the Best Recipe for Great OTT Success? by Chris Wagner 19 Solving the Video Marketplace Connectivity and Payments Challenge by Ed Laczynski 21 Cloud Components as the Future of Streaming Services by Olga Kornienko 41 DRM Pricing Demystified by Gabe Elton 56 Handy Checklist for Ensuring User Experience When Delivering Video Streams at Large Scale by Philippe Mouawad

OTT Executive Magazine Volume 8, Issue 2 - Spring 2019 Published by: Trender Research Inc., 24 Village View Road, Westford, MA 01886 [email protected] Copyright 2019 by Trender Research, Inc. Staff The contents of this magazine may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the Brian Mahony Kurt Michel expressed written consent of Trender Research, Inc. CEO, Trender Research EVP, Trender Research Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Subscriptions: www.OTTexec.com/magazine • Yearly printed/mailed subscription in OTT Executive Magazine Donna Bauchiero the U.S.: $59.95 Business Manager Nichole Janowsky Advertising: [email protected] Publications Manager Andrea Nelson OTT Executive Magazine Editor Director of Operations Printed in the USA

OTT Executive 3 Spring 2019 Magazine Executive Insights The Age of Plus Upon Us

By: Kurt Michel

elcome to the Spring issue of OTT As I look at this, I’m seeing a pattern in the Executive Magazine, or as folks here OTT subscription world. Maybe “+” really Kurt Michel is Executive W VP at Trender Research. at Trender call it, the NAB issue. When Brian should be translated as “$”? This might also He has over 30 years’ graciously offered to have me write the intro explain the demise of + (RIP). Could experience in telecom, to this issue, I of course accepted. But then it be that naming something with a “+” suffix datacom, and network- ing - in development, came the inevitable question: what to write and offering it without a user charge created sales, product man- about? As I thought about an appropriate too much cognitive dissonance? (Is there a agement and market- theme, it occurred to me that we are currently potential marketing PhD thesis here?) ing roles. His marketing surrounded by something I call the “plus” Then we have the video playback leadership experience at Akamai, IneoQuest, phenomenon. Follow along and see if you device hardware: (Express/Premiere/ and SeaChange gives agree. Streaming Stick) +, Galaxy S10+, him a unique, multi-faceted perspective on the vola- Recently, Apple announced Apple Nokia 7 Plus, Sony Xperia 10 Plus, LG tile video industry. + and Apple TV+. For Apple, “plus” Q7+…I’m sure I’m missing many others. is not altogether new. It began in 1986 with I would have praised for its immunity decided to embrace it. Macintosh Plus, and along the way, we’ve from plus-ification– The Kindle/Fire devices To support that point, I present exhibit seen iTunes Plus (higher quality AAC avoided it (albeit in favor of “HD,” but I’ll 1: This issue has twice as much content codec without protection) and 6/7/8 save the HD rant for another day, and maybe as any prior issue, and it covers a lot of Plus (bigger hardware). it appears include “turbo” in that discussion too); but OTT topics. Our guest writers represent that they are embracing “+” for their latest they have finally succumbed, with Echo Plus. all areas of the OTT industry, from service subscription-based services. And it goes even further: LTE+ (a better providers to content producers, workflow The rumored new Disney direct-to- ), Playstation Plus (subscription vendors to network platform vendors, large consumer (D2C) service is currently being gaming), Adblock Plus, Nike Air Max Plus, multinational brands to startups. They are all referred to as “Disney+”. It remains to be and more. Clearly, all of these brands are not here, bringing something for every reader. seen whether that will be the official brand. just using “plus” to mean more. They want For Exhibit 2, I submit myself. Brian These premium OTT service names it to be perceived as better. (I hold onto this felt it was time to take Trender and the OTT follow the lead of ’s first subscription belief most fervently when I am in the plus- Executive brand from its already highly- service, Hulu Plus. The “Plus” distinguished size section of the clothing store.) regarded industry position to the next level, their subscription service from the “Hulu” I think you get my point. We are awash in and he began looking for someone who could free service. However, in 2015, Hulu dropped PLUS! help him do that. Serendipitously, I was at a the “Plus” branding. Which brings me to my real point. Rather career crossroads during his search, and he I’m sure the folks at CANAL+ are feeling than fighting the “plus” phenomenon, convinced me that with a little bit of help, pretty flattered at this point. Trender/OTT Executive Magazine has Trender/OTT Executive could evolve to offer greater value to the OTT community. Having been a Trender customer while leading marketing activities at Akamai, IneoQuest, and SeaChange, I already knew that Brian offered great products and services, and held himself to very high honesty, quality and integrity standards. I also saw ways that I could complement what he already offered through my engineering development background and customer-side experience. So here I am at Trender, writing this introduction. If you made it this far, I will make one commitment to you here and now. We will not be adding a literal “Plus” suffix to any of our brands. But as we evolve and grow, we want you to feel like it is there. Feel free to let us know any time, one way or the other. Let’s Dream and Stream! �

4 Best Practices What Is the Best Recipe for Great OTT Success? By: Chris Wagner

re you happy with your current OTT delivered using an adaptive practice. service? With so many OTT services on • The Business Model. Now that your Chris Wagner is a A technology expert the market how can you use technology to video content is being delivered, your who partners with in- better compete for viewers, subscribers, and OTT service needs to return value for vestors, executives, advertisers? Now that consumers have so your investments. So, let’s pick the right and entrepreneurs to grow their profession- many choices, and research tells us they only money-making strategy. Based on your al brands, revenues, want to spend money on two to three OTT content strategy you should have a hybrid and customers. After services - will they pick yours? And to top marketplace approach to connecting with spending more than a decade in the video things off, free advertising-supported OTT your audience. Leverage SVOD, AVOD streaming industry, Chris has developed services are gaining traction in the market… and transactional to get the most out of an uncanny ability to start-up new technology busi- think Pluto TV and the acquisition. your content library. Your marketplace nesses and enhance existing enterprises through How about the latest announcement from approach should allow for the packaging of digitally enabled services. He co-founded internet start-up NeuLion and helped grow the business to NBC and their future AVOD offering? channels and content in any combination and $100 million dollars, which sold to Endeavor for $250 There is so much content out there. So, monetizing that content in a variety of ways million in cash. what is the secret sauce? Can you better across both local and international markets. leverage technology to play a more efficient Your OTT service should be flexible enough consumption, one of the largest data uses, role in finding and keeping subscribers and to create and publish subscription and pay will grow from 73% of total IP traffic to 82%, viewers? per view (PPV) transactional products and reaching 3 trillion internet video minutes per Here is my recipe for keeping your packages, localize the products for multiple month (that’s 5M years of video each month, technology costs down, ensuring the delivery regions and languages, and manage regional or 1M video minutes per second). So, know of high-quality video and making sure you pricing and promotions. your data. Knowing the “watch data” of your leverage your viewer’s “watch data” to keep • Pick the most popular devices for viewers in now more important than ever. them happy. streaming. So now let’s pick the device Your OTT service should generate and collect coverage plan and strategy. When a viewer data across your services. It should also My ingredient list for great OTT success: watches content on more than one device, collect customer profiles and subscription • Great Content. Let’s face it, video lifetime value and retention rates increase data as well as transaction data and methods content – in all its various forms, live or drastically. When your OTT service is of payments used for those transactions. on-demand, is certainly king as your first available on all the major device categories External data should be collected about your ingredient. Good content for large or small your marketing efforts should be focused on subscribes from , Amazon and other audiences is the fuel for your OTT service. content viewing on more than one device. external data sources. Device usage metrics, Whether your OTT service focuses on OTT audiences and subscribers should data collected that represents the quality of entertainment, movies, sports or live events, be measured across device categories. service and quality of experience your OTT content encourages viewers to engage Customer loyalty, customer lifetime value, service is delivering, is all important in with your brand. This engagement offers and higher conversion rates can be achieved finding and keeping viewers. monetization opportunities. by delivering relevant marketing campaigns So now you have the ingredients of a • Delivery. Once your live and on-demand and audience activation initiatives for multi- successful OTT service. Great food is created content strategy is underway, the delivery of device engagement. with great ingredients and great chefs. high-quality video to your audience is the • Keep your viewers engaged. Help Consider this; the U.S. market leads the world second key ingredient. How important to your viewers easily find and choose content in adoption of OTT services with 70 percent the consumer is the quality of your video from your library. Use technology to drive of its broadband households subscribing to delivery? Just look at these numbers. U.S. simple search, recommendation, and content at least one OTT service. Transform your viewers stop watching a video curation. Your service should be more than OTT tech stack and get all of the above when they encounter streaming issues. It a video player that just streams the content. ingredients working together. What’s a great has been reported that 85% of viewers stop Personalization and personally curated OTT outcome? The integration of digital watching if the video stalls or rebuffers. The libraries are important. technology into all areas of your business, same 85% say they stop watching a video if • Become a “data freak.” The velocity fundamentally changing how you operate the load time is too long. And finally, 57.3% of data is increasing and will always to deliver value to your viewers. It’s also a stop watching if the picture quality is poor. increase. Estimates suggest that global traffic cultural change that requires OTT service Video delivery should include encoding and will increase three times by 2021, while the providers to continually challenge the status transport processes that can support 720p, number of global internet users is expected quo, experiment, and get comfortable with and up to 4K video and Ad cues should to expand from 3.3B in 2017 to 4.6B (58% failure. Let’s make things happen! There are be included, plus closed captioning. All of the world’s population) by 2021. Video lots of great OTT chefs out there! �

OTT Executive 5 Spring 2019 Magazine Trends & Analysis Is TV Still The Hearth? How a Screen-Per-Person World Changes Viewer Experience By: Stephen Johnson

t first glance a typical American And yet, as we’ll see, even with room in 2019 looks nothing like it did 55 these massive investments in OTT and Stephen Johnson is an A independent analyst years ago when millions gathered around their corresponding increases in individualized specializing in video hearth-like on a Sunday evening viewing, the hearth of old hasn’t really gone advertising technology to watch four mop-topped young British lads away. Good content still attracts a wide and design for media distributors. He estab- perform on the Ed Sullivan Show. Nostalgia audience, some even in the same household. lished his consultancy, aside, the powerful – nearly ingrained – But the shift is unmistakably real and will Coach Media, in 1998 experience of household members gathering require examination of new business and to provide services in around a glowing TV and sharing the same advertising models. Whether individualized user experience design, information architecture, programmatic advertis- experience dictated much about how the TV viewing feeds the growth of streaming ing, and intellectual property creation and advise- business itself evolved. From its earliest days, services or vice-versa, the experiential ment to clients worldwide. ratings, advertising models, and of course consequences of the result are wide-reaching. the long-running idea of “prime time” trace their roots to this simple ritual from whence we derived the term “broadcast.” Everyone had the same experience – so much so that when emergency services or presidents wanted to reach as many people as possible, they “interrupted the broadcast” so everyone could hear their important messages. In an OTT world this isn’t exactly how we “watch TV” anymore – even hugely popular, widely-shared programming. The numbers tell a particularly stark : video traffic on mobile devices (a reasonable indicator for individual viewing) continues to rocket upward, while standard pay TV audiences commensurately decline. Of course these trends have hardly escaped the notice of the largest content providers and distributors – increasingly the same companies – who, in the next year or so, plan to roll out a dizzying array of mobile-friendly Monthly Mobile Consumer Data Traffic (in Petabytes) (Sources: Cisco/Statista) streaming services. If you haven’t yet heard of products from Disney (“Disney+”), AT&T From Screen to for applications, what (“WarnerMedia”), Viacom, NBC Universal, As personal tools literally made for does interactivity offer and how does Apple and others, you soon will. interaction, the phones and tablets streaming it commensurately change the viewing OTT content rarely sit still. Unlike the “lean experience (on any device)? No doubt the back” experience with a large distant screen, aforementioned distributors and studios have a offers an irresistibly tactile a few ideas, but their acknowledged rival set of interactive tools to either play with the might have a jump on them for creating a content directly or share it with everyone you new (or rather, resuscitating an old) model: know. Since most apps weren’t especially viewer-directed narrative has been recently designed with streaming in mind – indeed, showcased by ’s ‘Black Mirror: to them video is merely another flavor of Bandersnatch,’ allowing over a trillion unique underlying media – they’ve honed viewer permutations of the same story and inviting engagement for its own sake. Since there’s interactivity at every turn. While it’s possible an app for nearly everything, interactivity to imagine a roomful of viewers “playing is never far from the experience – even the along,” this experience appears particularly highly personal one of watching a program directed at individuals. Viewer response so or video. far as been positive enough that the studio (Photo: LIFE) But beyond providing more fodder isn’t overly concerned with older devices

6 new demographic group profiles based on a personal content may make it more so. more accurate knowledge of all household And while it may appear a bit cold members. And ad-tech-friendly protocols to replace gathering around the TV with like MPEG-DASH support this model by interacting over an electronic network, it’s allowing for alternate airings within the worth remembering that the latter remains same avail and programming, effectively connected to a significantly larger, ever- customizing the ad (and sometimes even evolving world of experiential possibilities. the content, see above) for each individual. The vaunted “internet of things” may not be From at least the advertising perspective, realized just yet, but other connected devices “watching” very soon may no longer be a in the home – including voice-recognizing common household experience at all. speakers, cameras, thermostats, even humble phones and TV screens – are neatly From a Single Hearth to a Network of supplementing and complementing OTT (Courtesy: Netflix) Warm Bonfires services. If the simple experience of gathering Resurgent interactivity, a preference around a TV expands into participation in a being unable to support the technology1. for short-form content and being targeted global, immersive, multi-sensory, personally by personalized ads look like natural tailored yet widely shared experience, it’d be Short Attention Span Theater outgrowths of individualized viewing. But, hard to argue we’d be the worse for it. � Probably not unrelated to interactivity is does that mean every aspect of the common the average length of programming watched TV viewing experience is gone? Is the old References: on individual devices. Shows longer than 10 glowing TV hearth on its way to (literal) 1. Netflix Takes Interactive Storytelling to the Next minutes don’t even capture half the mobile extinction? Level With ‘Black Mirror: Bandersnatch’, Variety, audience (compared to over 80% for the These trends appear irreversible but December 28, 2018 (https://variety.com/2018/digital/ news/netflix-black-mirror-bandersnatch-interac- same length on connected TVs), suggesting a individualized experience doesn’t necessarily tive-1203096171) strong emphasis on short form content (e.g., mean solitary experience. Mobile users are “clips”). This trend hasn’t gone unnoticed by clearly attached to their own devices and 2. Jeffrey Katzenberg, Meg Whitman Go Long on producers2, but advertisers have largely not consume video content on them as easily as Short-Form Entertainment, Variety, December 11, 2018 bothered to shift their models. Pre-rolls and any other activity; but evidence suggests that (https://variety.com/2018/digital/news/listen-jeffrey- bumper ads remain the distraction of choice hardly means they refrain from sharing the katzenberg-meg-whitman-go-long-on-short-form-enter- for nearly all SVOD services. And while experience or otherwise being part of a crowd tainment-1203085867/) mobile hardware logistics could be driving enjoying the same program. Ironically, the much of this preference – who wants to same interactive tools that immerse mobile watch a three-hour movie on a phone? - the users in customized content also allow difference between devices remains clear: them to revel in just how many other users mobile watching means shorter watching. are sharing the same thing. Redefining the group with whom we’re watching doesn’t I’m Talkin’ to You make watching any less intimate; indeed, So unavoidable ads still introduce a realization of collective watching deeply programs (or even clips), but are they at least relevant? The long-sought promise of individual ad targeting has almost certainly been oversold from a broadcast perspective, but individualized viewing has effectively solved the targeting part of that equation by definition. Quietly slipping through a technology world newly obsessed with , streaming services (with the help of new standards like ATSC 3.0) plan to target viewers like never before. Where broadcast media can only aggregate an audience or anonymize an audience of pay TV subscribers, OTT viewers in a broadband world are relatively fair game – not least because, as noted above, they’re simply interacting with an app and not “watching TV” as traditionally understood. Social networks, as might be expected, have embraced viewer targeting with particular gusto. As targeting occurs within a household and identifies individuals through their personal devices, new connections and opportunities start to emerge. Customized experiences become possible, but so do Online Video Consumption (Source: Ooyala)

OTT Executive 7 Spring 2019 Magazine Trends & Analysis Consumers and Their Devices: TV in the OTT Era By: Charlie Nooney

t’s no surprise that consumers are accessed from the myriad of devices they interacting with content and their may want to use. Charlie Nooney is I Chairman and CEO connected devices in ways that would have at MobiTV, Inc. He’s a been unimaginable even a few short years The Current Dilemma seasoned media ex- ago, making OTT the preferred method for So, while we have come a long way in ecutive, with a career dedicated to connect- accessing content. In order to predict the path terms of how much content we can offer ing media and main- this evolution will continue to take, we must consumers, there is still much that can be done stream brands with also begin to rethink our current assumptions to simplify and enhance the user experience. consumers through emerging technolo- about the consumers, their devices, and the Today’s content ecosystem is, for many gies. Prior to his role at MobiTV Inc., Nooney has also content itself. In the rapidly evolving world individuals, a complex web of sometimes held previous leadership positions with companies of TV providers, understanding that “content overlapping subscriptions, which may or such as The Walt Disney Company, where he served is king” will be essential to delivering the may not also include traditional cable. This is as executive vice president, as well as Chairman and CEO at Premier Retail Networks; and President service consumers actually want. This further complicated in homes with multiple of Broadcast Services and Out of Home Media at upends the traditionally held notion that user profiles, especially if the viewer happens Thomson/Technicolor. viewers will come to the content if they want to forget one of the passwords. it. Today’s new reality is that viewers want And while some content is shared across the content that they want to come to them, many streaming services, other content can access more content than ever before, but and providers that can do this in the most may be exclusive to one service or another, given the multitude of options, it’s not always convenient manner will come out on top. meaning that the user is often forced to have easy to access, and the experience can leave To fully understand, we need to take a quick multiple subscriptions—or even different many of them frustrated. look at how devices have evolved – and the devices—to access all of the content they resulting behavior changes in consumers. want. Searching for a particular title may or The Modern Consumer may not require accessing several platforms These are just some of the pitfalls The Evolution of Devices in order to find it. In sum, today’s viewers many current viewers typically face, but For decades, the terms “” and “TV” interchangeably referred both to the device used and the content itself, but those days are long gone. As the capabilities of TVs expanded, so too did the number of options for content. During this time a similar evolution occurred with phones; now, the number of calls made with is actually dropping, with more people indicating that their device’s ability to connect to the Internet is a more important feature.1 The same thing occurred with gaming systems and accessing content on the Internet – more and more options for accessing content are available than ever before, making how consumers access that content less relevant. While these devices have become much more versatile, we have also seen the introduction of inexpensive streaming devices for TVs which can access content easily and from anywhere. These can be purchased virtually anywhere, connected within minutes and provide ubiquitous access to a huge variety of content services. In this world, the device itself is a secondary concern. Users no longer care how they access the content they want; they are far more interested in how easily it can be

8 when we begin to think about future trends constantly available. They want to take their obtained by some multi-provider mix of OTT and demographics, it becomes easier to personalized experience everywhere they go, subscriptions. In order to truly meet the needs understand how OTT providers can deliver a and will accept nothing less. of an evolving consumer base, these trends better experience. • Subscription-based access will need to be taken into consideration and the • Device users are becoming more continue to grow. There are over 417 common complaints that many users have sophisticated. They expect a personalized, million household ‘media relationships,’ with current options need to be addressed. user-friendly experience. Kids are gaining or entertainment-related subscriptions, Service providers must also factor in the access to more devices at younger ages; exceeding the number of total Americans. foreshadowed future of technology in the with this level of native knowledge, they These relationships come in many forms, industry. This includes artificial intelligence intuitively know how to work them and will including Internet, Pay TV, and streaming (AI), virtual reality (VR), and augmented show little patience for experiences that are services in video, gaming, and music.2 This reality (AR). Leaning into virtual assistants less than ideal. Children up to age eight spend figure underscores the importance of the such as Amazon’s Alexa, Google Assistant nearly 2.5 hours with a connected device subscription model but given consumers want and Siri is a good place to start. every day, and almost three-quarters of that both simplicity and choice, the experiences time is spent viewing TV and . For around how to bundle subscriptions is a Challenges for OTT Providers eight to twelve-year-olds, this figure jumps to central question for the future. In order to truly meet the needs of an over 4.5 hours. In addition to this, Generation • A more connected future is inevitable. evolving consumer base, these trends need to Z and Millennials now make up over half of With recent advances in the smart home be taken into consideration and the common the viewing demographic in America. These arena, the widespread adoption of the Internet complaints that many users have with current users know how to use technology and want of Things (IoT), connected cars, augmented options need to be addressed. their experience to be personalized, easily and virtual reality, as well as artificial Most importantly, users want a seamless accessed, and ultimately, very enjoyable. intelligence, a more connected future is in service across all of their devices and • Devices are becoming less expensive. the works. The genie is out of the bottle and subscriptions. This is especially challenging As the technological capabilities continue cannot be put back in. In this increasingly in environments with multiple shared to make leaps and bounds while production connected world, users will expect continued devices. Logistically, it is a hassle for many costs remain low, viewing devices are ease of access for ALL of their content and viewers with multiple subscriptions to becoming more accessible to a greater digitally powered experiences. determine how to best view the content they proportion of individuals than ever before. • Cable TV is still very much alive. want. In addition to this, many are paying This is happening on a global scale, which There are currently nearly 190 million cable for redundant services, since some of their means that the inherent value from viewing TV subscriptions – although this figure has subscriptions have overlapping content – content will be with the content itself, not the been dropping by three to four percent over especially if they currently have cable as device. the last several years.3 The bottom line is well as OTT services. Alternating between • Mobility is important. We are all busy, there is still a robust market for cable service. multiple platforms and/or user profiles to which means that a substantial portion of our Many cable providers believe adapting to search and view for content is inefficient and day is spent outside of the home, and many the modern world by embracing app-based time-consuming. individuals travel on a semi-regular basis for delivery of content will allow them to not Service providers must also consider how work. Lifestyles have adapted to increased only maintain existing market share but AI, VR, and AR will impact the market, and mobility. Data is less expensive, Wi-Fi more grow it. This may be a winning combination, factor that into their strategies. This is all a readily available, and 5G is around the corner. especially for consumers who prefer the tall order, but we are moving in this direction People are being conditioned to expect to simplicity and certainty of cable service and and providers that embrace this quickly will have the Internet and all of its conveniences are willing to forego the possible value gains have an edge over those who continue to resist inevitable change. Television’s future will be very different from its past. Cable service, while still prevalent, has lost its market dominance primarily because it resisted technological advances and ignored the changing preferences of customers; but it’s never too late to put users’ needs first. � References: 1. Wakefield, J. (2018, August 2). Phone and Internet use: Number of mobile calls drops for first time. BBC News. 2. Westcott, K., Loucks, J., Srivastava, S., & Ciampa, D. (2018, October 5). Digital media segments: Looking beyond generations. Deloitte Insights. 3. Perez, S. (2018). US cord cutters to reach 33 million this year, faster than expected. TC.

Television’s future will be very different from its past.

OTT Executive 9 Spring 2019 Magazine Case Study The Birth of a Notion: How The Preview Channel Came to Be By: William Sager

“Find something you love in life and then go today) and Request TV (Jeffrey Reiss, and William Sager founded after it.” – Clint Eastwood RTV was owned by all 6 studios). I definitely one of the first satellite was the dark horse in this race. I got killed, PPV movie services with These are indeed interesting times in just trampled. But I learned many valuable all 5 studios aboard. He the business of television and channels. lessons along the way and also met some has worked with some of the largest media My experience goes way back to the early wonderful people who helped me negotiate companies in the world 1990s when cable was just spreading its the planks I had to walk at the studios to from Google, Fujitsu, wings. I worked for Group W, Westinghouse license first-run theatrical movies. I watched Hipcricket, idealab, Ve- rizon Telecom, MGM/ and Cable for 8 years. One of the as the cable networks grew. And they grew UA, Westinghouse Broadcasting and Cable to the largest MSOs at that time, it was sold to CBS quickly. And they named themselves with legendary ‘’. Mr. Sager recently launched cable and eventually absorbed. It had several names that usually described what you might ‘The Preview Channel™’ on over 100 million Smart themed, programmed cable networks: The expect to see on the channel. For example, on TV’s via TV, a Viant company, a division of Time, Inc. and several other Smart TV manufactur- Satellite News Network (CNN competitor The Travel Channel, you’ve got travel related ers. In , he produced 26 episodes of Sid that failed), The Travel Channel, Home programming. The same with Animal Planet and Marty Krofft’s ‘D.C. Follies’ and six original home Theater Network, Country Music Television - animal related. Easy to figure that out from videos starring Bob Keeshan, ‘Captain Kangaroo.’ At idealab! Mr. Sager launched 4 start-up’s and pro- and the infamous ‘Z’ Channel (yes- the one its name. duced the 1999 broadcast of the 35th Woodstock that out-subscribed HBO, SHOWTIME, Jump to today. A few years ago, the OTT anniversary concert streamed live across the U.S. He and channel business began in earnest. With the sits on the board of advisors for Gravitate Pictures and is a member of The National Academy of Televi- combined in Los Angeles). rise of broadband, the TV world figured sion Arts and Sciences. The pay-per-view business was just out it could deliver a TV channel over the beginning. I thought that was going to rule internet (IP) instead of broadcasting it or delivered over IP. So I took a look at all of the TV landscape. It didn’t. Eight years later, using a satellite up and down link to get it to them last year. As of 4/01/2017, I found 119 I left Group W, raised $3m and founded The a cable headend. Pay TV and cable stalled in channels offered on Amazon Channels (and People’s Choice, one of the 3 nationally growth. Sling TV appeared with 20 channels that was hardly all of them out there). satellite delivered addressable PPV movie for $20.00 and that was like the little Dutch Here are some of their names: Acorn TV, services. My competition was Viewers Choice boy pulling his finger out of the dyke. A XiveTV, BaeBle, MHZ Choice, XTerra TV, (Scott Kurnit, whom I am still friendly with whole bunch of channels appeared that were Alchemiya, Cinepride, DekKoo, Hi-Yah, 88bb, Ameba, Herra, Panna, GiladTV, Toku + many others. Would you know what kind of content was offered on any of these channels? However, I bet you could tell me what was on ‘The Movie Channel’. Comprende? So, I looked around at what was carried on cable. Then I examined all of the programming carried on each of these channels whose names didn’t tell me a thing about what was on them (and yet, they all wanted me to pony up a monthly fee of $ 3.99 for each channel). No wonder the cable/ TV/broadcast business is in trouble. IMHO not all of these channels will be around for the long run. Niche is OK, but niche without a name or branding won’t work in the world of a thousand choices and constant media bombardment to the senses. An idea began to percolate. Sitting in a movie theater bombarded with movie trailers of films opening months from now, some I’d never heard of, I marvelled at the immense production value of this content Preview Channel offers movie trailers, video game trailers and even an original and its enormous entertainment value program called “The 1st Annual Academy Awards Trailer Show.”

10 – in this particular case more than the film board as co-owners, which is super exciting. I came to see. There are so many films, we They just launched earlier this year as can’t possibly see them all but where to go an innovative company to experience them in trailer form? At that focused on premium short-form video for moment I realized what was totally missing businesses and consumers. Their launch from the TV landscape - a channel that immediately coincided with their acquisition carried upcoming new movie trailers and of an extremely valuable company, formerly video game trailers (the really cool CGI mentioned ScreenPlay Inc. We have corralled animated graphics kind). and included ScreenPlays’ large library I went back home, dreamed up a name, and of movie assets that are one-of-a-kind — snagged the domain which was (a stroke of exclusive to them and to the channel now. luck) available. (https://thepreviewchannel. They include 50,000 classic movie trailers com/) and I set off on another channel (from the 40s on up to present), 7,000 star venture. The first major challenge I faced and director interviews, 50,000 movie clips, was – how can I access the content? Although 7,000 video game trailers, and 20,000 classic In the Spring, we will also be available the studios and other distributors make their TV trailers. internationally in , , Spain, trailers available in a number of places and Having them on our team lets us the UK, Brazil and Italy. ways what I was seeking was the ability to supplement our licensing deals with their We are talking with one of the world’s get them all on a timely basis. treasure trove of content. largest mobile carriers to do a promotion with There was only one source. I formed a My second partner, Xumo TV, a Viant them for a launch on their handsets in August. joint venture with the 900lb. gorilla in this company and a division of Time Inc, We will be integrating an alert system for space—ScreenPlay, Inc. ScreenPlay has been provides our TV platform with one of the consumers when their favorite trailers debut in this business since 1989 and distributes more elegant and easy-to-use, consumer- (Star Wars, Marvel Superhero’s, D.C., etc.). these assets to over 10,000 retail locations. friendly formats I’ve ever encountered in this You can watch the channel today using They used to supply Blockbuster with all of space. The Hollywood studios send out new the XumoTV app on iTunes or Google their in-store TV promotions and trailers; content and Screenplay encodes it daily and Play. It is also available on Roku and now they supply Amazon’s IMDB and others. delivers it directly to Xumo who then, using will be available on Amazon’s Fire TV ScreenPlay Inc. has been providing a great machine learning automatically retires the by summer. We are also working on our video service to North American businesses older content and inserts the new content into own iOS and GooglePlay app as well. for 30 years, and has a library of over 200,000 the schedule – avoiding any human hands We are also voice-enabling the channel music videos and film, game and TV trailers. required to run the channel. The Preview so you can make requests to find certain With the launch of The Preview Channel they Channel could not operate at the high level it interviews or trailers you want to see by just now extend their reach into the TV/Cable/ asking Alexa. Broadcast/OTT market. And, finally, very often I hear “but you It didn’t happen overnight. In the past, can find these on YouTube.” Yes, some of I put together a PowerPoint and begged for them, but you must know the exact title to capital. This time, I turned to my family search for it. This is a channel that offers a and friends. There was no time for raising lean-back, watch TV experience for those money – the TV business was moving too who still watch TV and with the apps, the quickly. It has required substantial capital channel becomes totally interactive with and sweat equity, some real trial and error, a rich vault of movie and game trailers, some starts and stops; but on February 15th, does without the wonderful cooperation and behind-the-scenes star interviews, director 2019, The Preview Channel was launched, help of the folks at Screenplay or without interviews, and older classic movie trailers offering movie trailers, video game trailers Xumo TV’s awesome technology. that you can access day and night for free. and even an original program called “The This year is going to be really exciting for A true entertainment channel with a constant 1st Annual Academy Awards Trailer Show” us. We’re about to announce our integration refreshed stream of content with the biggest to 35 million Smart TV sets, with plans to directly into top smart TV manufacturers and stars and the highest production values. And launch to another 65 million Smart TV sets international distributors and even a return unlike some of the other new channels out by summer. Initial audience and advertiser to broadcast. We have initially launched The there, this one takes little to no explanation of response has been excellent. Preview Channel on Xumo, which we expect what it is (unless you’ve been living under a The channel is laser focused on the exact to be followed by 4 additional launches over rock). Most people know and enjoy watching demographics that everybody in the TV the course of the next 2-3 months, including movie trailers and kids and adults love video business is chasing: Millennials and adult Samsung, Vewd and Zone TV. game trailers. Nothing to explain here, just males 25-35 years old. There is no shortage The Preview Channel is now available in a whole lot of original programming and of brands and other promotions or products over 35 million homes. XUMO is available content to watch and enjoy all year long. � that want to be seen next to movies that are on your Hisense, Magnavox, , opening nationwide in theaters. Those same Philips, Sanyo, Sharp and VIZIO smart brands know their audience, and also realize TVs. Channel Plus, powered exclusively by it’s the exact same audience that plays video XUMO, is available for free on LG smart games. The CPM’s for this are off the charts TVs in the US and select models of LG smart - ranging from $20-35. There’s a reason you TVs in . see ads for Coke and GM Trucks in movie Once available on all of these platforms, theaters before the feature starts. The Preview Channel will be seen on over We also have Loop Media, Inc., on 100 million Smart TVs by Summer 2019.

OTT Executive 11 Spring 2019 Magazine Executive Q&A The Viewer Experience: Past, Present, and Future Interview by Kurt Michel with Ramon Duivenvoordeni, CCO at 24i Media

amon Duivenvoorden, COO at 24i With regards to the user experience Media, sat down with Trender Research’s itself, personalization has been increasingly Ramon Duivenvoorden R is the CCO at 24i Media Kurt Michel to share his thoughts on where important, and 24i has been addressing this by and joined the leader- OTT has been and where it’s headed. adding the ability to modify user experience ship team after 24i’s based on audience segmentation. There are, acquisition of Vigour where he served as Kurt: Hello Ramon. Thank you for taking of course, two sides to this - data gathering/ founder & CEO. In his some time to speak with us at OTT Executive generation and UI design. While 24i is not current role, he con- Magazine. As your tells us, you in the business of AI, we recognize the huge tinues to focus on sus- tainable value creation “create and deploy video apps for every potential of enhanced metadata creation for the company and its customers. Ramon is based screen, from set-top boxes, SmartTVs and within the space and are doing everything we out the 24i office in LA. media players to game consoles, tablets and can to enable its use. To account for this, our mobile phones.” What would you identify as Backstage system allows for a huge amount the most significant trend or capability being of flexibility in metadata. It can intake and availability, little or no personalization and requested by your customers, and how are make decisions on how to create dynamic recommendations. Today the technology has you addressing that? groupings of content. Another part of this evolved, 4G and 5G are making streaming is serving these dynamic groupings to the quality better and more accessible for Ramon: Customers are increasingly seeing right audience. It’s important that audience everyone. In addition, today’s end-viewers the value of being able to manage all their segments be as granular as possible, so we are much more sophisticated and have apps from one place. It’s not enough make it easy to manage, dynamically serving higher expectations and demands from a anymore just to be able to deploy apps to the right content to the right segment. streaming service. Most end-user complaints all platforms on the market; it’s important today are on usability, latency, content, and to have a centralized interface to manage Kurt: How have end-viewer complaints personalization. If a viewer today sees an ad, all of these apps. Making a simple editorial changed over the last 5 years? What were the they expect the advertisement to be relevant change to one page of your app could take most common complaints then, and today? for them based on their needs and wants. If hours of updating each platform to maintain they see the same ad several times in a row or consistency or else you would be left with Ramon: Five years ago, the most common cannot immediately find the content they are several different apps, all with slightly end-viewer complaints were poor streaming looking for, they are likely to drop off more different editorial content. quality, buffering, live streaming, content quickly and try their luck with a different service.

Kurt: What is the difference between “content availability” and “personalization” 5 years ago and now?

Ramon: Five years is a long time in this industry, and access to content has changed dramatically over this period. Besides the enormous inflow of short form and user- generated content in the market, access to premium content has improved drastically too. Five years ago there were a handful of major streaming services in the SVOD and broadcaster space. True OTT access for was not widely available and many broadcasters were still hesitant to launch direct-to-consumer distribution as they feared this would undercut revenue obtained through licensing deals with Pay TV Operators. Today, we have instant access to premium content from nearly all broadcasters on 24i works with clients to create apps that provide a seamless experience every screen through a wide variety of across HDTVs, tablets, and mobile devices. streaming apps. Content is available through

12 direct-to-consumer services from networks, The most interesting aspect is that many of and functionality are really optimal. Pay TV operators such as Sling or DirecTV these fields of innovation have the potential To this end, we have fully equipped test Now, and a variety of large streaming to cross-pollinate each other in ways that labs in our main development offices in services like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon or stimulate new innovation and opportunity. Amsterdam and Brno to allow us to test our YouTube TV. With several major services For example, user interfaces that connect software extensively across a wide range still expected to enter the market (Disney, personal devices to the big screen can enable of device models through both automated Apple), the battle for viewership in the online new ways to personalize device experiences and manual testing before shipping. video market will only intensify, giving on what have traditionally been “shared Because we use a productized development consumers more choices to cherry-pick their screens,” while improved understanding of framework that reuses and unifies code media spending and better access to content. the tastes and behaviors of users provide and UI components across both templated With the increased access and choice of a plethora of opportunities to create and and customized applications, we have the valuable content, the growing importance serve more relevant ads or content offerings, opportunity to test our apps and user interface of an intuitive, personalized user experience allowing content owners to monetize services components at scale, and then leverage the cannot be overstated. A library of 5,000 or in new and better ways. investment in our testing facilities and efforts 10,000 content items has little value when across a large number of streaming apps and users cannot find content that is relevant Kurt: What do you see as the role of customers. to them quickly. Given the increasing voice in the video app user interface? Is competition and large amount of capital a natural, conversational based UI the Kurt: Is there a significant difference in required to source valuable content, ultimate destination, or something else? video apps based on global regions? For investments in personalization, high-quality example, are the apps for North America metadata and a premium user experience Ramon: The significance of voice as a fundamentally different from those provided are essential to successfully compete in the UX paradigm will undoubtedly drive a in APAC or EMEA? Or do the video apps all space and generate positive business results. new and important wave of innovation for follow a common blueprint? A specific example to demonstrate the video apps and software applications in innovation with regards to personalization general. A natural, conversation based UI is Ramon: Cross region differences in video is provided by Netflix. Five years ago, definitely in the cards, although I expect that apps are mostly driven by the prevalence personalization was done primarily on the voice will exist as an incremental UX layer of different business models in different basis of the relevance of titles and genres rather than replacing existing paradigms markets. For example, in regions like (Netflix being a pioneer in personalization completely. Voice can be especially powerful APAC and LATAM, most services are even at that time). Today’s user experience in situations where our current interfaces monetized through ads or tied-in to mobile is personalized to the degree that category fall short or are too complex, such as or operator subscriptions; while the EMEA titles, movie descriptions and artwork are all searching a content library or browsing and US markets have a larger share of SVOD tailored to appeal to your personal tastes and through an electronic programming guide. services or services that combine an ad based viewing behavior. A romantic comedy that At the same time, there will still be plenty ‘free’ tier with subscription- or transaction- stars Tom Hanks might be advertised to you of situations where the click of a button or a based OTT. Another unique regional UI/ with artwork that prominently features the simple swipe will be the most effective way UX difference is the change from “Left to actor because Netflix knows you are a fan; for a user to interact with the application, Right” to “Right to Left” (RTL) interfaces while another viewer that likes the genre whether it is because they are interacting on for apps that use Arabic or Hebrew language. but has no interest in Tom would instead their phone in a public setting or because the While the user interface is typically mirrored be served an image that emphasized the interaction is simply faster than the voice in these situations, there are many small romantic nature of the movie. alternative. The real challenge for future details and rules that should be taken into application developers will be to blend account in order to provide an optimal Kurt: How has video app design changed in different interaction paradigms across a wide experience for end users in these markets. the last 3 years? Would you say the innovation range of physical contexts and screens in a As mentioned before, a good user interface is accelerating or decelerating? way that maintains a simple and intuitive should never get in the way of the user, and experience for the end-user. This challenge many paradigms that make up an effective Ramon: I would say that innovation is is one of the key aspects that makes it so and attractive user experience are based on accelerating. As end-users are becoming exciting to be at the forefront of this industry. universal principles of good UI/UX design. increasingly sophisticated and demanding, Shared UI/UX principles and extensive AB the need for streaming services to offer Kurt: One of the most significant challenges testing have caused video apps all over the immersive, flawless and personalized in video apps we continue to hear about is world to converge and look familiar on the experiences continues to grow. The managing the constantly increasing array surface. The difference between a good and simplification of user journeys in video of devices and operating systems. You just a great user experience is therefore often apps is an area that will continue to show can’t test every combination! How has the determined by execution and details. much innovation and improvement. When app development industry come to grips with viewers interact with streaming services, that? Kurt: Thanks Ramon. We look forward to they have a particular goal (most often continuing improvements in the viewer’s to be entertained). And usually, the less Ramon: While we make use of user experience, as you and your peers drive effort your users spend on achieving a variety of software that allows user experience innovation in 2019. � this goal, the better the user experience. us to test on “virtual machines” Whether we are talking about cross screen during development, it is our experience that interaction and enriched meta-data, voice, testing the apps on a large variety of real personalization or monetization - exciting devices is the only guarantee to account for developments are happening everywhere. hardware issues and ensure that performance

OTT Executive 13 Spring 2019 Magazine Executive Insights Content Curation Is Key

By: Michael Nagle

ith the OTT Executive Summit rapidly managed to leave the competition behind Michael Nagle is the Wapproaching I can’t help but flashback as we mingled at one of the bigger soirees CEO of Ashling Digi- to many of the events of previous years in the being hosted by many of the usual suspects tal, Inc. and has spent TV business. (read that as HBO, MTV or Madison Square more than 25 years in the media business There was CTAM (National and local Garden Network). working for SONY/Co- chapter events), NCTA, the Western Cable One of the words that continues to bubble lumbia Records, The Show, NECTA, PCTA and many more. up in the industry is “curation,” but it is in Box Music Network, Bloomberg LP, Playboy, If you had booth duty those events could reference to content. The same word can be FlixFling and NatureVi- become a challenge since there were sessions applied to the work you put in to beginning, sion TV. In 2016, he became President of Get Cast, and presentations worth listening to (and maintaining and growing relationships – both the comprehensive platform for media production, admittedly – some less than interesting) and personal and professional. casting professionals and actors. Michael also serves as the Head of Content Licensing for Viva people to meet up with as they rushed from There appears to be an assumption that Live TV. Michael has managed Bloomberg’s distribu- one session to a meeting or to take a call in once you have the phone number and/or the tion and advanced product development (2000-05) the hallway. email address of a target prospect that you’re as well as Playboy’s sales and marketing for North America and Eastern (2005-15). Home Media If you forget the education that many halfway to closing business. Try applying that Magazine named him one of their “Digital Drivers in attendees may have accumulated during these theory when you go through the 200+ emails Media” in both 2016 & 2017 for his efforts on behalf conferences, consider the relationships they that come to your inbox between the close of Invincible Entertainment. enabled many professionals in the industry to of business one day and the start of business develop. the next morning. Emails from a contact you will get some of them. When you do – don’t Sure, some of the parties were excessive. don’t have history with may not even get read give your elevator pitch. Introduce yourself If you happened to be the person setting up by many people. Consider how many other and begin a relationship with a simple OR manning the booth at 8AM, getting to people like you might be reaching out to the conversation. Ask them when it might be best bed anywhere between 2 – 4AM (if you were same person for a similar or more urgent for you to reach out regarding your ultimate lucky) certainly made that an unpleasant purpose? How optimistic are you that your goal. Make a positive impression. challenge. However, these gatherings often approach will stand out? Was it a cut & paste Another good idea is to visit the table top gave attendees an opportunity to meet with message or did you really personalize your exhibitors and collect whatever literature and colleagues and influencers who otherwise email to the person you’re trying to reach? business cards you can carry. If you don’t would have been unreachable. They also OTT and Streaming are evolving as know those companies you will want to allowed many of the participants to see each the space continues to thrive. Terminology make an effort to find out who they are and other in a very different light. changes along with the capabilities of determine if they can help your business – or Some of the best friendships I’ve begun the hardware associated with production, even if you can help theirs. in the television business are with my former transport, consumption and sponsorship. I would also recommend that you reach competitors. At the time we should have How comprehensive is your knowledge on out to some of your clients and colleagues been sworn enemies, but somehow we all all of the changes that are happening? How and ask them if they are planning to attend well do you know the thought leaders in the Summit. Send them a link just in case the space? If your business or job depended they aren’t aware that it is taking place. on arranging a meeting with any of the key Bring some value to your communication players, how confident would you feel about with them. Ask them, “I’m planning to be securing that meeting? there for the duration. If you’re going to be When you do a bit of digging on past there also – let’s grab a few minutes or a cup participants in the OTT Executive Summit, it of coffee during the break. I’d like to share becomes clear that this is a primer for many some details with you about X, Y and Z.” of the companies and professionals who are There is no greater value than looking leading the industry in strategy, growth and someone in the eye when you are innovation beyond the present day. If you’ve communicating. A handshake can change been to the event you also likely know that a relationship. Your emails may soon get a you can actually have a conversation with faster response. Your phone calls will get some of these people between sessions or returned quicker. during one of the networking opportunities. After all – curation is key. � The trick is – you have to be there and you have to put down your phone and hustle. You won’t get everyone on your wish list but you

14 Case Study Over the Top and Through AI to Big Data’s House We Go By: Ted Korte

he media delivery business has become a ensure a quality experience and proper Tgame of seconds. The lines have blurred measurement of viewer engagement. Ted Korte is the Chief between broadcast and other IP-related The aggregation of quality-of-service Operating Officer of Qligent Inc. He has 25 services for delivering media, while content (QoS), QoE, and viewer behavior data years’ experience in creation has grown from original TV series produces extremely large but trusted data the Broadcast industry and movies to how-to videos and social sets. By harnessing sophisticated Machine delivering hardware and software solutions media posts. Access to content for consumers Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence in Terrestrial TV and seems limitless, with digital audio and video (AI) technologies to process this data, media , Audio Studios, now the preferred media for nearly all of our enterprises can glean the valuable insights Contribution and Dis- tribution, Master Control Automation, Asset Man- daily activities. With so much content being needed to improve the viewer experience. agement, Video Servers, Non-Linear Editing, Quality consumed for a wider variety of purposes, Significantly, these techniques can be used to of Service monitoring and Delivery Analytics. Ted viewing time and audience attention spans predict – in turn allowing operators to prevent has a passion for aligning market and technology have grown shorter, making every second – customer-impacting problems before they trends with business objectives. Ted’s goal for Qli- gent is to help Networks, Broadcasters, MVPDs, and count. occur, which is invaluable in minimizing infrastructure service providers integrate Quality The main contributor to the rapid subscriber churn. of Service and modern Delivery Analytic workflows expansion of content creation and into their organizations more efficiently and cost ef- consumption has been the emergence of The OTT Challenge fectively. Over the Top (OTT) delivery, made possible OTT has tremendous growth potential by broadband connectivity to a wide range for the media and entertainment sector, with broadcasters controlled the entire chain of “connected” devices. This model gives growth projected to exceed $158B worldwide through to their , while Cable, consumers access, convenience and value by 20251. OTT delivery can provide Satellite, and IPTV distribution offered that wasn’t available via traditional linear consumers with one-to-one, personalized a single handoff both technically and services. However, Cable, Satellite, IPTV experiences while offering providers the commercially. and Over the Air (OTA) delivery will not ability to collect immediate feedback. To The picture is quite different for OTT. completely disappear; each will find their maximize this opportunity, content creators Playout is moving to the cloud via third-party place in this new media delivery ecosystem. will need to determine the right content, right providers, as are streaming service functions, For these providers, competing in this duration, right time and right platform to including , packaging and DRM. fragmented landscape will require a mix of reach their audience in real time. Meanwhile, multi-CDN and multi-ISP traditional linear services alongside new Regardless of the end goal, though, the first solutions are becoming the norm for reliable OTT services, combined with a strong data- question in any decision tree should be “Is delivery and reaching consumers on-the-go. driven approach. the quality great?” Studies consistently This approach enables incredible scale and Content owners maintain very little control place poor quality in the top four reasons speed-to-market, but comes with a cost: loss upon turning their product over to CDNs why viewers abandon OTT video. And with of control. There could potentially be several and OTT service providers for delivery. To short-form content consumption on the rise, hand-offs between separate third-party complicate matters, they lack insight into even relatively brief problems become very service providers, thus making a holistic, the viewer’s quality-of-experience (QoE), as noticeable – for example, imagine a five- end-to-end data aggregation, monitoring more and more third-party services become second delay in a four-second pre-roll ad. and analytics system a “must-have” for a part of the end-to-end solution. This vacuum To complicate matters, OTT is extremely successful OTT channel. of information begs for new methods that difficult to control end-to-end. OTA The best way to optimize OTT-delivered

Figure 1: Traditional Linear Service Provider Mix Figure 2: OTT Service Provider Mix

OTT Executive 15 Spring 2019 Magazine content is to start with high-quality delivery to Data Scientist, the project Figure 4: Data Process Flow a target audience, and respond to feedback in goals can be decomposed real-time. To achieve this, many are looking into subsequent tasks toward new technologies – most notably, AI. that can be solved by certain Machine Learning Enabling Technologies techniques. Selection of the AI has been talked about for decades, proper model or approach but adoption and useful results have been requires investigation of a rollercoaster ride. It didn’t really become the data, which must first a practical reality until the cloud, big data, be cleaned, transformed and IoT enabled the capture, storage and and properly ingested into processing of vast quantities of data. the system. The path to Large datasets can hold a lot of potential an optimal Data Mining value, but it is challenging to find patterns, solution may involve trends, and anomalies within them. Methods iteratively exploring, and approaches from computer science, building and tuning many mathematics and statistics have been joined models. together to extract and interpret knowledge. Various off-the-shelf Approaches vary from Data Warehousing software tools offer and Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) to graphical and conceptual Data Mining and Machine Learning (ML). support for all phases of Data Mining is defined as the process the knowledge discovery of discovering patterns in data, either process. This eases the automatically or semi-automatically2. This daily work of Data Mining process is supported by tools and practical experts and allows a techniques also known as Machine Learning, growing number of non- which are used to identify the underlying experts to start knowledge structure of the data. Data Mining techniques discovery projects, but since can be used to predict future outcomes based every use case is unique, on historical data – for example, identifying you will need to understand customers unhappy with their OTT service and how to properly use these components. There to create both predictive and prescriptive predicting the likelihood of them cancelling are always factors such as exceptions to rules analytics. The complex analytical their subscription. Machine learning can and errors in data that require further analysis computations behind the KQIs were modeled support this analysis by, for example, using of data and fine tuning of the models. to indicate service availability. clustering methods to categorize customers To simplify the understanding and use of based on their consumption habits. Customer Case Study: Big Data and AI in the results, the KPIs and KQIs were broken There are numerous AI methods and Action down into three topological domains – the approaches that can be used in Data Mining An example of the use of AI and ML headend, the network and the subscriber – applications, depending on the characteristics to turn Big Data into actionable business and designed such that any output metric of the available data and the questions to be insights is a project that Qligent deployed lower than 95% would trigger corrective answered. It is critical to pick the right set with a large-scale provider. Their primary action. By leveraging these insights, the of tools and techniques. With the help of a objective was understanding, preventing and provider realized quantifiable improvements reversing subscriber churn, in quality and viewer engagement while but to do so they needed a reducing support calls and churn. better understanding of their The analytics system currently generates end-customers’ experiences approximately 20,000 predictive tickets and consumption habits. each week across all KQIs in all macro- The provider deployed an regions. The number of tickets is expected intelligent analytics system to continuously drop as the provider’s first- that supplemented data line and second-line support teams use this collection and mining with information to optimize the performance and controlled “” probes reliability of their network. and end-user IoT probes. A The headend and network KQIs were Big Data architecture was initially already above their minimum target designed to process the new of 95%, but increased another 1.4% for the and legacy data in real-time, headend and 1.7% for the network over the and a workflow sequence was first six months with the help of analytics- created to process the data as driven corrective actions, and continue to shown in Figure 4. grow. Interestingly, this seemingly modest Key Performance improvement in quality was followed by an Indicators (KPIs) and Key increase in concurrent subscriber usage. The Quality Indictors (KQIs), provider was subsequently able to correlate shown in the seventh stage that the service quality improvements Figure 3: Machine Learning Process Flow in Figure 4, were developed attracted more concurrent viewers and longer

16 As a result, the before the call proved far more successful first-line support team than generic questionnaires or robo-calls. saw a 6.6% decrease in the number of incoming Conclusion customer problem reports. OTT enables an array of compelling new Even more impressive has business models, including personalization been an astounding 93.8% at a global scale. It changes everything decrease in repeat calls from the size and type of content, to how from customers about content is measured and monetized. This the problems detected trend also introduced new players into the and sent for investigation media and entertainment landscape, many of Figure 5: Viewing Impact of Quality Improvements by the analytics system. whom were early pioneers in the use of the Similarly, the second- cloud, Big Data and AI. Now, the new and average viewing times. line support team saw traditional players alike are looking toward Between 150 and 300 subscriber-related an 86.2% decrease in customers calling these technologies to gain a competitive predictive tickets are generated by the system multiple times about the same problems. This advantage. daily per macro-region, each representing confirms the benefits of quickly determining Bringing these technologies together can an individual or small group of subscribers the root cause of any issues. provide media organizations with valuable predicted to be affected by a critical fault in The analytics results also enabled the insights they can use to improve their the next three to five days. The second-line provider to create a prioritized “churn subscribers’ experience. Most importantly, support team investigates each predictive prevention” list for customer service agents the use of AI and ML enables providers to ticket, with a goal of preventing the fault to proactively contact. Initially, the weekly- predict problems before they actually occur, from happening. generated list had a large and thus correct them before they impact their number of subscribers to viewers. As seen in our case study example, call, with roughly 35% of early project results demonstrated a direct them predicted to have a correlation between quality improvement very high probability of and end-user engagement. More viewers leaving the service. After tuned in, watched longer, and were less six months, the list was likely to cancel their service after knowing reduced by over 80%. their provider is staying on top of QoS and Furthermore, by arming QoE issues. The only thing worse than not service representatives addressing quality problems quickly enough with analytics about is not knowing about them at all. � subscribers’ preferences and past technical References problems, the agents were 1. The Insight Partners, “Over The Top (OTT) Market is able to demonstrate the Expected to Grow from US$ 44.6 Billion in 2017 to US$ provider’s commitment 158.4 Billion by 2025” [Press Release]. 8, Jun 2019. to customer service 2. Witten, Ian; Frank, Eibe, “Data Mining Practical when speaking with the Machine Learning Tools and Techniques,” Second Figure 6: Churn Reduction Impact of Quality subscribers. Having this Edition, 2005, p. 5. Improvements and analytics insights personalized knowledge

For more information on submitting an article or advertising in OTT Executive Magazine: Nichole Janowsky, Editor: [email protected]

Summer 2017

ottexec.com/magazine OTT Hits the Fast Lane The Race Is on for the Future of the Industry Crowning a New Content King Arrived—OTT content emerges from the shadows Goes All-In Delivering World-Class Video 4K Content Over OTT Better than Broadcast & Cable? You’re Doing it Wrong Programming Rights in an OTT World A How-to Guide Installing Apps on OTT Devices

Executive Q&A Series Quality of Experience Is “Broadcast-Like” Even Possible? Barbara Ford Grant HBO Facebook Live OTT Monetization David Mendels A Step-By-Step Guide for Brightcove Broadcasters Navigating the New Wave Charlie Dunn Cloud and Virtual Tektronix OTT Case Studies Brenton Ough National Hot Rod Association; Reality Touchstream Media Footprint.TV An OTT Mirage? Israel Drori A Vision For OTT Zixi An Interview with Piksel’s

Fabrice Hamaide

OTT Executive 17 Spring 2019 Magazine 18 Best Practices Solving the Video Marketplace Connectivity and Payments Challenge By: Ed Laczynski

onnecting the dots in a crowded video Apple iTunes, , Roku Channel marketplace poses a significant challenge Store, or Samsung Tizen (among others). Ed Laczynski is the Co- C Founder of Zype Inc. for video content owners trying to push These platforms provide reach to millions of and serves as its Chief products to the right place for consumption. potential audience targets with easy-to-use Executive Officer and The OTT market is flooded with set-top in-app purchasing. While many successful Director. Laczynski has more than 10 years of and mobile marketplaces where viewers services launch on just one marketplace, digital technology lead- go for on-demand and live content like to reach the full global audience most ership experience. As a iTunes, Google Play, Roku, Amazon Fire, services eventually need to deal with this Senior Vice President at Datapipe, he led the and others. Each has its own payment and fragmentation. business and product development vision, achiev- marketplace management rules, dashboards Each of those marketplaces—and the ing significant sales and customer growth. A fre- and APIs. Managing the integration between app stores that consumers use to download quent speaker and author, Laczynski is recognized video products and services across these and pay—function differently in terms of throughout the industry for his thought leadership, vision and experience helping organizations suc- marketplaces proves to be a big technical and quality assurance rules, merchandising and ceed with . He is an award-winning operational challenge. authentication rules, as well as how their entrepreneur and developer. Enterprises that are building video-centric backend payment system works. However, products and services — especially those that if not planned and integrated carefully, these are based on a monthly or annual subscription marketplaces can obscure valuable customer Speed-to-market is crucial; however, en- model — need strategies and tools to conquer information, as well as making it a challenge abling frictionless payments and unifying the marketplace connectivity challenge. It to provide a “buy once, use everywhere” information across multiple app marketplaces starts with understanding the marketplace model where your customers can subscribe can be complex and time-consuming. While landscape and preparing a monetization on Apple iPhone, for example, and watch customers have the option of building strategy accordingly. Content owners must from home on their desktop computer middleware to integrate into multiple app understand what is required and know the through your website. Considerations like stores and harmonize customer accounts, marketplace delivery points for their content. these are what help knowledgeable product entitlements and transactions, to realize fast owners make smart decisions regarding time-to-market they should strongly consider Understand the marketplace landscape to marketplace and monetization. marketplace-ready infrastructure to enable in prepare your monetization strategy a more streamlined way. Typically, when product managers are Multiple Marketplace Payment Infra- To solve this challenge, product owners launching a new subscription service they structure: APIs and tools to solve this should consider building or buying software rely on a number of marketplaces like challenge that can serve as a Multiple Marketplace Payment Infrastructure. This is defined as:

• All monetization offerings, price points and associated entitlements can be monitored and managed under a single view — along with business rules for various promotion plans including discounts, coupons and trials. All of this can be accessed via API.

• All integrations with the various marketplaces — including point of sale and backend event handling and receipt validation, should be automated, with implications for entitlements made available as soon as possible to your services. This is so consumers that buy can watch everywhere as soon as possible, and those that cancel cannot.

This type of architecture can provide a Understanding the marketplace landscape is key to monetization. turnkey payment infrastructure and leverage

OTT Executive 19 Spring 2019 Magazine simple, unified APIs that better decisions, and ultimately work better provide authentication, together. entitlements management Overcoming the marketplace connectivity and customer account challenge is important for content owners synchronization that works looking to drive engagement through across these marketplaces seamless customer experiences while growing to provide a great revenue. By understanding the marketplace, experience for customers using an effective monetization strategy, and your VidOps team. incorporating a payment infrastructure that provides support across marketplaces, and Give your VidOps team unifying teams, processes and tools into a great tools single workflow, content owners will find Another important factor success in the growing video marketplace in beating marketplace and opportunities to build, establish and connectivity challenges engage audiences. � is reducing complexity among teams, processes and tools. A single streamlined workflow creates visibility into processes and tools for more effective payment management and will help your team get access How do you turn marketplace connectivity into a to data quicker, make payment machine?

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20 Best Practices Cloud Components as the Future of Streaming Services By: Olga Kornienko

ontent protection equates to security for A best practice approach for this new the revenue stream of each and every landscape is the focus on products and Olga Kornienko is a Co- C Founder and COO of video service. That is the simplest way services rooted in cloud environments. For EZDRM, the original to define the business rationale for DRM a number of years, the market has seen DRM as a Service Ppe- protection mechanisms. With that as a simple monolithic cloud video services—often cialist. Since 2001, Olga has driven the premise, the actual detailed discussion of termed Online Video Publishers (OVPs)— growth of this very in- security for video services can sometimes that provided a white label framework for ternational enterprise seem to be vastly overcomplicated: from setup and delivery of video with low capital and established its strong market brand- considerations of what security is needed expenditure. But the current trend is towards ing as both a business and a technology leader. Olga and how to implement it, to how DRM disaggregated cloud offerings providing “best is an expert on video security, security industry his- technologies work, and how to make sure of breed” functional building blocks. Other tory, and a frequent contributor to industry publica- all your customers can see the content they essential advances include frameworks for tions and conferences. are authorized to see. To some extent, the operators to assemble, connect and manage technologists in the history of our business these components to provide a flexible, have had a tendency to muddy the waters resilient workflow for service deployment efficiency, latency, throughput, etc. with generations of products that demanded and expansion. proprietary formats, esoteric interfaces and a Such cloud-based specialist microservice • High component scalability propensity to hide key topics behind a veil of components are now a significant force in secrecy that only served to obscure the key the streaming business; and video services • A level of automatic resilience logic and central principles of our industry. built utilizing this approach are setting the But it doesn’t have to be this way. As the standard for efficiency, scalability, and • Simple to use inputs and outputs video industry is working hard on projects agility in the new video marketplace. There that essentially democratize the creation and are a number of key characteristics that help • API-based operational configuration delivery of video content, the use of security propel this trend: - vital to the business dimension of every Take, for example, the recently announced service - is bit by bit starting to feel a little • Exceptional individual component EZDRM API integration with Amazon Web less arcane. performance characteristics, in terms of Services (AWS). Specifically, AWS Elemental

Figure 1: A simple example of the combination of basic components.

OTT Executive 21 Spring 2019 Magazine DRM complexity should no longer be a barrier to business success.

Media Services are a good illustration of the formats to secure playback on client devices. is a continuously developing field, so access power of this kind of innovation (a full brief to routinely updated software components is available on the AWS Elemental website at • Effective QoS through last mile delivery that track best-in-class performance without https://www.elemental.com/resources/briefs/ service based on Amazon CloudFront and extensive system management complexity is multi-drm-cloud-based-video-workflow). 3rd party CDNs. a big plus. A simple example of the combination of basic components is offered in the diagram The interconnect and management of • Workloads for video tend to be very (Figure 1). Think of it as Lego blocks for this architecture is all enabled through AWS dynamic. Channel line-ups vary event-by- video streaming, if you like. Live video Elemental Media Services, which provides event. Ingest to on-demand libraries needs workflows combine real-time encoding using customers the capability to ingest, process, fast response, but on a typically irregular AWS Elemental MediaLive and just-in-time package, and deliver video content at scale. basis. So, it’s a big advantage to be able to packaging, origination, and encryption using When head-end infrastructure of this type is switch compute power on and off as required. AWS Elemental MediaPackage with a DRM combined with complete client-side SDKs, it solution to securely process and deliver is possible to rapidly configure and deploy It seems clear that best of breed, linear broadcast and event-based content to world class end-to-end video services that virtualized video service building blocks consumers. are complete, scalable and expandable. are lowering the technical and commercial The power of the component-based How does all this technical effectiveness barriers to competitive service deployment approach can be seen through: relate to improving the economics of service as a prime example of cloud best practices. delivery and the simplicity of the business Using a fully managed, hosted cloud- • Use of AWS Elemental MediaLive real-time models? We think it can be demonstrated that based service avoids serial integration of video encoding service to provide channel technical scalability of this type is paralleled different DRM technologies and provides by channel advanced live compression by business scalability, with straightforward a straightforward, future-proof interface that optimizes quality level at each tier of and simple models to understand and between your workflow and secure, reliable video all the way from mobile implement. Most importantly, cloud service delivery. resolutions up to premium 4K/UHD/HDR resources have the compelling advantage of With DRMaaS, there are no functional quality. a pay-as-you-go model. A few points that compromises involved in the implementation underscore this argument: and the business approach enables functional • AWS Elemental MediaPackage providing completeness while scaling for the future just-in-time packaging, stream formatting, • The microservice-based approach makes service capacity. The service business manifest generation and encryption for the sophisticated technical components available approach is always the top priority, and DRM full range of Adaptive Bit Rate streaming to deploy with very low initial expenditures. complexity should no longer be a barrier to formats required by diverse customer Setup fees are typically low, and service- business success. � devices. related fees typically scale very well with user load - and therefore potential service • The Digital Rights Management (DRM) income. solution provides complete multi-DRM encryption, including Google Widevine, • A significant cost driver for video is CDN PlayReady and Apple FairPlay bandwidth so small optimizations of en- Streaming across the range of packaging coding profiles can pay back very quickly. This

22

Case Study 2019 OTT Accolades Finalists Announced By: Brian Mahony

e are excited to announce the 2019 “OTT 2019 OTTA Executive of the Year Finalists Accolades” (OTTA) finalists. Each year, we This year’s batch of OTTA executives Brian Mahony is the W CEO and Principal honor the executives and companies that stand represent a mix of innovators, survivors, and Analyst of Trender above the crowd representing the best of the leaders guiding their companies through re- Research. He is also OTT industry. Winners for each category will birth. Perhaps most famous of all is Netflix’s President of the 45,000 be announced live and crystal “OTTA” trophies member OTT Executive Reed Hastings. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, Reed Community— a vibrant awarded at OTT Executive Summit, May 29th in has guided Netflix from a DVD mail order and growing network (www.OTTexec.com). company into the worldwide streaming giant of TV and video pro- We had huge interest in this year’s fessionals engaged that it is today. All new services must use the through social media, OTT Accolades awards program (OTTA is Netflix strategy as a competitive benchmark, publications, and pronounced “otter” with a accent). including new services from industry events. Brian has 25 years experience with consum- Based on feedback, we also made a few behemoths Apple and Disney. Netflix’s er-oriented technology products and companies. changes. First, we combined the “Product billion dollar investments in original content, of the Year” and “Company of the Year” and cold shoulder to the recent Apple TV+ companies to stay the course and NOT get categories. There really wasn’t enough launch, will shape the OTT landscape for acquired? Kaltura CEO Ron Yekutiel and differentiation since companies that excel years to come. JW Player CEO Dave Otten stand out for usually have a good product behind them. In Other executives deserve praise for guiding surviving and thriving despite competitors the case of a company that is part of a lager their companies through various types of around them getting picked off like flies. conglomerate (e.g. ) we’ll duly note acquisitions, spin-outs, or re-launches. Take Then there are those leaders growing the product or division deserving the kudos. for example Synamedia CEO Yves Padrines through innovation. Tru Optik CEO Andre Second, we have separated the announcement and MediaKind CEO Angel Ruiz, who find Swanston presented at the 2015 OTT of the OTTA finalists, who will now get themselves at the helms of the former video Executive Summit when his company was deserved recognition by being highlighted divisions of Cisco and Ericsson, respectively. just getting started. Now his viewer analytics in the Spring/NAB issue of the magazine Unencumbered by the larger conglomerates, company is signing big deals and growing every year, from the award winners, who they are now focusing like a laser beam rapidly. Other innovators include Ken Klaer, will receive their crystal trophies in person on the burgeoning OTT space. Then there EVP & President at Comcast Technology at OTT Executive Summit. Winners will then are those execs growing their companies Solutions, who is valiantly tackling the have their profiles featured in the Summer through acquisition, namely CEO Jeff Ray of challenge of bridging the gap between the issue of the magazine. Brightcove (acquired Ooyala) and CEO Scott worlds of OTT and cable. Full disclosure: some of the companies Puopolo of Telestream (acquired IneoQuest). Finally, BritBox President Soumya on this list, including Roku, Amazon, and Building scale and a more complete OTT Sriraman earned our praise for leading the Netflix, are part of my current stock portfolio, product offering is a good way to survive the charge for this new joint venture by the BBC or may be at some point in the near future. consolidation happening in the industry. and ITV. Can she carve out new space in an Without further ado here is the list of Speaking of consolidation, how about OTT world dominated by the likes of Reed OTTA Finalists. those executives who have lead their Hasting’s Netflix? Executive of the Year Finalists

Reed Hastings Ken Klaer Dave Otten Yves Padrines Scott Puopolo CEO, Netflix EVP, Comcast CEO, JW Player CEO, Synamedia CEO, Telestream Tech. Solutions

Jeff Ray Angel Ruiz Soumya Sriraman, Andre Swanston Ron Yekutiel 24 CEO, Brightcove CEO, MediaKind President, BritBox CEO, Tru Optik CEO, Kaltura 2019 OTTA Company of the Year Finalists management solutions—you can’t grow your AWS Elemental and Anevia. Still others are This year’s cast of companies driving OTT service if you can’t keep customers. providing a “one stop shop” for new OTT the industry forward are some of the leaders Similarly, companies such as IBM Watson services, which is why ViewLift and Zype behind the infrastructure that makes OTT are finding ways to use big data, analytics, made our list of finalists. Both companies are work. Since “the app” is what increasingly and AI to provide a more customized excellent choices for a complete platform that defines the OTT user experience, 24i Media viewing experience. Others are focused on includes content management, distribution, is on this list. Similarly, Vindicia earns the central plumbing of video processing monetization, and intelligence. its spot for its industry leading subscriber video transport, and video quality-- such as Company of the Year Finalists

www.vindicia.com www.anevia.com

www.zype.com www.24i.com www.viewlift.com www.elemental.com

www.ibm.com/watson

2019 OTTA Service of the Year Finalists that appeal to a wide variety of interests. with OTT— wide-scale streaming of high “OTTA Service of the Year” was the most FuboTV, initially focused on Spanish- quality content to audiences around the fun category for us to review. It’s amazing speaking soccer fans, has now expanded into world via a multitude of different devices how many OTT service options there are a full vMVPD. If you are looking for a fill and screens. Our decision on the ultimate now (over 1,000 by some estimates). And lineup of British, Golf, or Christian/Family winner of this category will come down to the content is awesome, if you can find it. content, then BritBox, GolfPass, and Pure a judgement about the quality of the content On that point, we named CobbleCord a Flix, respectively, are excellent additions. If discovery and viewing experience, breadth of finalist for their excellent “service selection” you are looking for a more comprehensive content, and service availability. portal. Though not really an OTT service service with both free and premium channels, I hope you can join us on May 29th in offering in its own right, the portal helps Xumo or the Roku Channel might be exactly New York City when we will hand out the consumers choose streaming services based what you are looking for. All of these OTT crystal trophy OTTAs at OTT Executive on simple, customized criteria. With that out content service offerings impressed us with Summit. � of your way, you can choose niche offerings strategies that exemplify what is possible Service of the Year Finalists

www.cobblecord.com www.pureflix.com

www.xumo.tv www.fubo.tv www.britbox.com/us

www.roku.com/whats-on/ www.golfpass.com the-roku-channel OTT Executive 25 Spring 2019 Magazine Case Study A Labor of Love: How an OTT D2C Provider is Lifting Millions By: Katia Loisel

hat makes us truly happy? A Harvard over ten million connected TVs worldwide. WAdult Development Study into what With a catalogue at launch of more than Katia Loisel, Founder makes us happy, conducted over 75 years, 1,000 titles, including 50 expert-guided and CEO of The Love Destination, is a rela- revealed that the secret to happiness is courses, we’re thrilled to deliver a wide tionship and body lan- love. The research found that it’s not the variety of expert-guided courses, how- guage expert with over amount of money, fame or success we have, to’s, lifestyle shows, documentaries, films 19 years experience in content production but rather the quality of our relationships and expert resources that will stimulate and media, developing that is at the heart of our happiness. Our your mind, touch your heart and help you and producing dating, close relationships buffer us against stress, transform your relationship with yourself relationship and life- style content for the global market. She has worked improve our health and make us feel greater and others. Our viewers can enjoy our on- with thousands of singles and is passionate about contentment. Great news if you’re blissfully demand programming, and access experts helping people to connect and spreading love world- coupled up, but what if you’re not? at their fingertips—anytime, anywhere. We wide. offer selected ad-supported content for free, Where is the love? while premium service provides access to Finding and maintaining healthy the entire library across all Love Destination From day one, we knew that we didn’t want relationships isn’t always easy. We’ve never supported-devices. to build from the ground up; we wanted been more connected and yet we’re lonelier a tech partner that could do more than just than ever; and it’s impacting our physical, Our relationships: Helping us spread love develop our framework and apps. We needed emotional and psychological health in a to millions a partner that had perfected the recipe and big way. As face-to-face connections are Our relationships have always been a key was willing to share the secret ingredients. rapidly replaced with digital ones, it begs the component of our customer acquisition and Our partnership with OTTera provided question: What are we losing and what can brand awareness strategy and are at the heart just that, as they had over 10 years of fruitful we gain by reconnecting to one another? At of our success to date. As a startup, we needed partnerships with connected TV and set- Love Destination, we believe that love is at to find ways to license content and reach top box manufacturers worldwide. This the heart of everything and are passionate our target audience cost effectively while relationship accelerated our road to market, about leveraging the power of OTT for good. mitigating risk. One of the key questions allowing us to leverage their partnerships To help alleviate loneliness and inspire and we asked ourselves was “How do we reach with the world’s largest consumer electronics empower people to reconnect and create millions without a multi-million dollar manufacturers, including Hisense and Vizio more fulfilling relationships with themselves budget?” The answer was partnerships. TV. Working with OTTera took the headache and others. Spreading much needed love (and perhaps even happiness) into the world. Our background in the relationship space provided invaluable insight into how we connect and the impact that love (or lack of it) has on our lives and behaviour. When you’re looking for love or having issues in your relationship, finding a solution becomes of utmost importance. However, for many, one-on-one coaching is simply too expensive, and content found online isn’t always from trustworthy sources, compounding the problem. This insight helped shape the very core of who we are and what we do. We wanted to make expert content accessible, delivering content that empowers, educates and entertains. The Love Destination, which combines eLearning with digital TV, launched its SVOD and AVOD streaming video network for everything love, dating and relationships in late February. It is available on a growing range of devices and will soon launch on The Love Destination: spreading love to millions of viewers via OTT.

26 shows on everything love. Our viewers can now access experts at their fingertips, , 24/7, for a fraction of the price they’d normally pay for expert courses or advice. We’ve built up our expert programming to include courses on dating, relationships and wellbeing. These courses are tailored to help you heal your heart, date with confidence, master body language, manage conflict, navigate relationship issues, reignite the spark with your partner, and help you to reconnect with yourself, offering powerful steps to self-love, confidence, and health and wellbeing. We stand out from our competitors by offering original tailored expert-led online courses designed to help our subscribers solve a problem at any stage of their relationships, super-serving our subscribers and providing unbeatable value. However, producing content was only Finding love and expert advice...at our fingertips. part of the content puzzle. We also needed to license content. But as a startup, we needed out of building out our tech and finding the actively looking for expert advice on finding to avoid paying large upfront licensing fees, right distribution channels, freeing us to focus love or navigating their relationships. and where possible, use a revenue-share or on successfully growing our community cost-per-view licensing model. We learned to over 70,000 viewers today. Utilising Curating a catalogue that empowers, that there were a limited the number of OTTera’s highly adaptive framework, our educates and entertains distributors we could work with, particularly apps have been launched on a growing range As anyone in the OTT space will know, pre-launch. of digital platforms including browsers, a robust go-to-market strategy is nothing In 2018, we partnered with Oovvuu, an iOS, Apple TV, Android, Google Play and without the right content. However, curating Australian video scaleup using proprietary Roku set-top-boxes, and will soon launch on a large catalogue of content is no mean feat, artificial intelligence (AI), which allowed us over 10 million connected TVs and devices particularly when you’re serving a niche. to license short and long-form content from through our partnerships with Hisense, This has been one of our biggest challenges to a catalogue of over 50,000 titles. Oovvuu Sharp, Toshiba, and Vizio TV – with more to date. We made the decision early on to focus partnered with Love Destination in order come. These partnerships would have taken our internal production efforts on content to continue to fulfil its mission of delivery us years to secure on our own. that we couldn’t easily acquire. We then high quality content from the world’s best Driving brand awareness by working with leveraged our 400-strong stable of experts broadcasters to the ever growing worldwide experts, influencers and brands who share for what we were already good at; creating a audience seeking brand safe content from our audience is also an important part of our cost-effective catalogue of exclusive original quality trusted journalists. Since launching in strategy, allowing us to reach those who are expert-guided content, documentaries and 2014, Oovvuu has partnered with 100 global broadcasters and publishers including The BBC, Reuters, Bloomberg, Agence France Presse, Associated Press and ’s Seven West Media. This partnership allows us to curate a constantly growing catalogue of brand-safe inspirational stories, films and documentaries on social issues, relationships, kindness, health, and human connection, that stimulate your mind and touch your heart. While we have come a long way, the challenges of building and scaling an OTT direct-to-consumer (D2C) business continue. However, through it all, we have our sights and hearts firmly set on growing our catalogue, building our community and spreading the love worldwide. �

Love and relationship content and advice on the go.

OTT Executive 27 Spring 2019 Magazine Executive Q&A The Future of OTT: Marrying Artificial Intelligence with Video Processing Interview by Brian Mahony with Guido Meardi, CEO and Co-founder, V-Nova

uido Meardi, CEO and co-founder redesigining the foundations of encoding of V-Nova shared his insights about from the ground up, we ultimately achieved Guido Meardi is CEO G and Co-Founder of the future of OTT with Trender Research’s better and substantial V-Nova, and a for- founder, Brian Mahony. processing power reductions without mer senior partner at requiring dedicated hardware acceleration, McKinsey. Guido has extensive business Brian: Tell us a little bit about yourself? hence maintaining compatibility with the experience as well as devices we all already use. technical depth. He Guido: As CEO and co-founder of V-Nova, We were the first company to directly contributed to the technology de- I am passionate about making the future commercialize and deploy an AI-based velopment of V-Nova’s PERSEUS, a unique family of of digital and AI come alive, empowering codec. We offer the most efficient video and compression formats that provide a step-change everyone to access high quality digital image codecs in the world and we assembled in the quality, reliability and cost-efficiency of video experiences whenever they want, wherever a unique patent portfolio of over 300 services, with over 200 patents co-authored and filed. they are. international patents. Our umbrella family Before setting up V-Nova in London I of formats (PERSEUS) already stemmed was a senior partner at McKinsey, as well two distinct software-based codec formats: Brian: What new products are you excited as an avid angel investor in tech. I’m a PERSEUS Pro, for mathematically lossless about and how will it help/change the way happy hybrid of business, technical and and visually lossless professional production people view OTT content? entrepreneurial backgrounds. Throughout and contribution applications; and PERSEUS my career, I’ve maintained a deep interest Plus, for high compression efficiency in Guido: PERSEUS Plus is continuously in computer technology and artificial content distribution to end users, web gaining more ecosystem partners and intelligence, and believe that breakthroughs publishing and peer-to-peer applications. We deployment options, most recently with in compression, data quality and processing are also involved in multiple standardization Telestream adding support. This is helping speed will be transformative for many efforts in SMPTE and MPEG. more services to upgrade their video delivery industries and consumers. Our products enable operators to improve to PERSEUS and we recently deployed the customer experience, serve more users, first payTV OTT service able to provide Brian: Can you give us an overview of what reduce equipment CAPEX/OPEX, reduce premium full HD live sports to large TV V-Nova does? bandwidth/storage requirements, and speed screens at bandwidths as low as 2.5 Mbps. up semantical indexing, whilst maintaining We also showcased the first OTT mobile Guido: V-Nova stands for applying AI and compatibility with existing devices, standards apps able to distribute live 1080p channels parallel processing to data compression. By and workflows. at bandwidths as low as 1 Mbps, and the first satellite UHDp50 live channels at bandwidths lower than 10 Mbps. This all boils down to enabling more people to view better quality video, however constrained their internet connections are. I’m also proud that V-Nova was the first company to commercially deploy a video codec that included AI at its core. PERSEUS Pro with Deep Learning was recently implemented on our live contribution encoder/decoder product and in non-linear editing plugins. PERSEUS Pro realises vast savings in equipment CAPEX/OPEX, bandwidth and storage requirements, which is great to accelerate the feasibility and therefore growth of UHD HDR OTT services, and more efficiently produce and distribute tier-2 sports and eSports content. This development is part of the wider opportunities which the introduction of AI and machine learning offers to media companies at almost every level of production

28 Increased live streaming has led to QoS issues. AI will help operators to better understand their audiences. and distribution. Most specifically, AI and innovation and more competition, which the gap between demand and network ML will help operators to better understand ultimately will benefit the end consumer. capacity meant that we saw another slew their audiences by leveraging the data they The era of “one size fits all” and “there can of quality-of-service issues and unserved already have at their disposal from network be only one” is over for video codecs, and demand across the globe. I fully expect this glitches to consumption patterns and search we are happy to be one of the companies trend to continue throughout 2019, driving behaviour, and to use that to optimise and heralding this new era of quality and choice. increased interest in solutions to the problem personalise the experiences they provide to of large-scale TV-like (and better-than- their viewers. We’re playing a key role in Brian: What obstacles must be overcome TV) live streaming such as V-Nova’s own driving forward those personalised services before we have full consumer adoption of PERSEUS Plus. by leveraging PERSEUS Pro to significantly UHD TV? Driven in particular by sports and accelerate AI semantical indexing of content. eSports, content rights owners and operators Guido: Adoption of UHD TVs themselves is will increasingly distribute premium content Brian: What role do standards play with absolutely happening and at a great rate as over the internet in 1080p60, 1080p60 High regard to video encoders and decoders? it becomes the default for CE manufacturers Dynamic Range (HDR) and UHD HDR. and retailers. You only have to look at the This will impact the whole delivery chain. Guido: They play a critical role in listening recent announcements from the Consumer Production workflows will require upgrades to the industry and helping to bring together Electronics Show in Las Vegas where 4K to support UHD HDR, while higher volumes key technologies in a way that can be rolled displays have become almost secondary of content will require different solutions, out across very complicated workflows and to new flagship 8K TVs. That there is next including remote production and unmanaged ecosystems. Through our work with bodies to nothing in native 8K to watch on them, networks contribution. Solutions that reduce like SMPTE and MPEG we also see how unless you live in Japan, is beside the point. capital outlay and transmission costs to a these organisations can be an amazing hotbed The industry is headed in this direction. fraction, including our PERSEUS Pro and of talent and innovation. The bigger challenge, of course, is how PERSEUS Plus solutions, will become a In particular, we are seeing rapidly to deploy UHD content services that can must. growing interest in enhancing compression operate at scale and deliver a good quality I also expect compression advances efficiency, and doing so without necessarily of service. This involves a lot of components to contribute to making live cloud-based requiring new hardware is something the across the delivery chain, but fundamentally workflows as cost efficient as on-premise industry and our customers find compelling. the volume of data required and the costs ones, further fuelling the explosion of services By bringing together leading vendors across of encoding it are core to the challenge. and channels. Content owners of any size the industry and focusing minds on solving Reducing bandwidth requirements improves will be able to go direct to consumers, with real issues, a lot of progress is being made in QoS and reduces delivery costs for operators no need to “build” infrastructure. This trend this area that will bring major benefits. – therefore making more services feasible will continue to drive industry consolidation In parallel to standards, which are from a business standpoint. in 2019, as well as to question the long-term essential to fragmented open ecosystems and validity of some existing business models relatively small operators, it must also be said Brian: What do you feel is the biggest in the value chain for both vendors and that more and more ecosystems are migrating challenge in the OTT market today? operators. � towards software on top of general purpose hardware and OS/middleware stacks. For Guido: The main challenge remains large operators, industrial use cases and delivering a QoS that matches traditional secured apps this means controlled end- TV distribution whilst the demand for OTT to-end workflows where operators are free consumption continues to grow apace. to use any technology they feel like using, The tremendous growth in live video including proprietary components. This delivered via OTT––dramatically more trend, already established for audio codecs, challenging than VoD for encoders and has the potential to foster faster cycles of CDNs––continued apace in 2018. However,

OTT Executive 29 Spring 2019 Magazine Executive Insights OTT: The Most Misunderstood Acronym in Digital Media By: Jon Sumber

n a digital advertising/marketing world It’s a valuable product requirement for filled with DSPs, SSPs and PMPs that OTT, but in the end, it’s still just a video Jonathan D. Sumber I is the Vice President of accept IOs based on CPM, CPC and CPV player. In other words, “100% FEP” may be digital sales at Hearst. to meet KPIs defined by CTRs, VCRs another cat video. Before joining Hearst, and CPAs, it’s somewhat remarkable that FEP content does not follow any Sumber was manager of digital accounts and OTT – an acronym with which most media specific rules of length or quality, and business development professionals are relatively familiar – is still the “transparency” offered by most OTT at Media Networks, so misunderstood. campaigns is limited to an app level view or, Inc. (MNI), a division of Time Inc. Previously, Let’s take a shot at a working definition: at best, a channel. he was the digital product supervisor for the news- OTT is broadly defined as the transmission And a marketer is asked to pay a premium paper division of Gannett in White Plains, N.Y., devel- of video over a broadband Internet data CPM for this inventory? oping, selling, and executing digital media plans, as well as Gannett digital partners, such as Cars.com, connection (“over the top” of the data Yes. to produce customized, targeted campaigns. pipe) onto a video playback device without Well, all right. Guess we’re done here. requiring a subscription to a “traditional” OTT is a cluttered, unregulated, messy space cable or satellite pay-TV provider. The video that isn’t safe for advertising. It is common for OTT resellers and demand is often (but not always) accessed via an app. Messy and cluttered, yes, but OTT ad side platforms (DSPs) to include web-based To be sure, there are a ton of streaming revenue exceeded $2 billion last year—not online video within OTT offerings because options (ad-supported, ad-free, hybrid) bad for a misunderstood acronym. (a) anything longer than a handful of minutes all battling it out for adoption. After all, We hear consistently that advertisers in duration can be argued as “long-form,” consumer choice is the accepted wisdom want to reach the right person at the right and (b) the market-rate $15 CPM charged of the digital economy, and such wisdom time within premium content. Here are two for OLV does wonders in diluting the $35-45 holds sacred the philosophy that supply and rules every one of those advertisers should CPM market rate of quality OTT inventory, demand will inevitably sort the wheat from consider: making the product appear more competitive. the chaff. If your reports include web domains for But how should advertisers look at OTT 1. Be sure to separate online video (OLV) inventory and clicks as a performance metric, while the space sorts itself out? Surely not all from over-the-top (OTT); beware. Instead, get a raw report from your video being streamed is created equal. But partner and visit the apps/sites/channels does that even matter? OTT is an audience- 2. Partner with those who have proximity to where your ad served. Significant waste in based television product, so who cares if the premium content itself. your spend can be uncovered. my ideal customer is watching This is Us or Bundling OLV and OTT can be an funny cat videos? All the same, no? No. Not all OTT video is alike, so to speak. First, what do we mean by “video”? Should a marketer pay the same price to serve an ad on cat videos as they do on This is Us? Fortunately, the lexicon has evolved such that we now have the more appropriate term “long-form video.” Progress… But wait, how does one guarantee that ads are serving within long-form and higher-quality video when it’s a well-known limitation of OTT advertising that I can’t target or report at the program level? Meet the full episode player, or, as it has become known, “FEP”…because, acronyms… amiright? OTT salespeople barrage advertisers promising “100% FEP!” Well… not exactly. An FEP is designed to handle long- form content (think 30- to 60-minute TV Should a marketer pay the same price to serve an ad on This is Us programs); it does not define the content. as they do for cat videos? © NBC.com

30 effective strategy, especially when a holistic have developed business relationships with priority access to premium publishers may video campaign utilizes the same device the content owner, who will often transact find themselves selling at high CPMs or graph and data management platform (DMP) utilizing the same ad to ensure data mixing inventory types to remain competitive. to deliver sequential messaging and enhance integrity for targeting and fulfillment. In other words, OTT inventory resellers with frequency. However, your partners should be Once these preferred partners have sold a heavy publisher component offer a sensible transparent about your inventory. Want a $25 what they can, the remaining unmonetized means of complying with Rule 2. CPM? Fine; be aware it might entail a 40/60 inventory is typically made available within Ultimately, the publisher controls OLV/OTT inventory split. a handful of OTT-focused DSPs. The catch: the inventory, the data, and the access to Rule #2 applies for marketers seeking Some publishers’ rules limit a DSP’s access advanced insights. The seller’s proximity to association with premium inventory because to inventory. One premium publisher with the publisher allows the seller to maximize most OTT resellers utilize a DSP, which whom we work only allows DSPs to compete access to premium content, heightened means they don’t have a close relationship to for 50% of ad breaks, and one commercial transparency and more reliable targeting. the content owner. within those pods. In practical terms, this OTT is burgeoning thanks to a wealth Consider the process by which an means the DSP might begin with access to of quality and opportunity. But a good deal impression becomes available for purchase: just 10-13% of available quality inventory. of snake oil is sprinkled in. It can be a less A major publisher produces a TV From there, campaign parameters such challenging and more worthwhile space for show and associated streaming apps. The as geo- and audience targeting eliminate advertisers who follow the two rules. � publisher’s sales staff sells around 30% of substantial relevant inventory. Then factor the inventory to the biggest agencies. For in frequency caps and pod-collision rules, the remaining 70% the publisher cuts big and suddenly the bottom of the funnel is deals with buyers who can commit to a left with little to no premium inventory. minimum spend against audience targets and Further complicating matters, volatility cuts similar deals with platforms carrying and competition will drive up pricing for the publisher’s app. These major players remaining quality inventory; those without

OTT Executive 31 Spring 2019 Magazine Executive Insights A Call for More User Control Over the Streaming UX By: Virginia Juliano

ill Streaming Heed the Lessons that stock in. Cable Didn’t? Now that streaming has become fully Virginia Juliano is W the Founder & CEO We all know that streaming has come a mainstream and the embarrassment of of CobbleCord (www. long way over the last 20 years and OTT content riches continues to explode, giving CobbleCord.com), a disruptive startup that video usage continues to increase. However, users the option to take (at least some of) helps people cobble there are some glaring consumer pain points the reins seems like a logical next step in the together personalized that should be addressed sooner rather than industry’s evolution. bundles of both free later. If not, percolating dissatisfaction could and paid streaming services. Its patented bubble up and undermine the considerable Lean Back or Look Forward? process uses customer content, device, internet and ‘user good-will’ that streaming services During the early development of video price preferences to craft a custom list of services have generally been afforded. It’s time for streaming app ecosystem, most of the players for each user, empowering them to find the best streaming solution to fit their needs and get the streaming services to start giving consumers decided that the overarching UX approach most from streaming. more control over their user experience should give users some straightforward before it comes back to haunt them. controls (like add to watchlist, basic search Consider what’s happening to the and very simple filtering), but largely above all else. Traditional TV Providers that didn’t heed reinforced the “lean back” nature of video the call for more consumer-centric approach, viewing, particularly with apps created for Borrowing from the Past to Shape the until it was too late – and obviously, pushed the TV screen. Future people into the awaiting arms of OTT. The assumption was that viewers would In a perfect world, relevant content Clearly, the user interfaces and smart use want to be served up content while they sit would be easily discovered and displayed of data on the part of the online streaming back and passively receive it, essentially to the right person at the right time across giants is far superior to that of the Traditional recreating the traditional TV viewing the countless walled-gardens of apps. That’s Pay-TV world. But the increasingly frequent experience. Netflix has practically spun its surely a goal to work toward, but there are lament we all hear is that users (or viewers) programming recommendations and auto- various corporate conflicts and technical spend more time searching for something play features into a veritable product-design hurdles that have slowed its progress (which to watch than actually watching. And the art form. Of course, they’ve done quite well is another story for another day). new OTT launches from Apple, Disney, with that approach to date. In the meantime, I’m suggesting to WarnerMedia, NBC, etc. on the horizon But the streaming landscape has changed simply give users more control within each promise to amplify the problem. dramatically over the last few years, and individual app or service as an incremental If you don’t believe me, just take a the new flood of content choices has made way to improve streaming’s overall look at the results of a recent PwC survey the lean-back model a source of increasing experience. Addressing the ‘content fatigue’ that showed almost 90% of consumers are frustration rather than assistance. The issue quickly is key to keeping OTT’s dissatisfied with content discovery and endless rows of scrolling content artwork, momentum going. recommendations. That certainly doesn’t the seemingly arbitrary arrays of content I believe that this is a product-design sound like a ringing endorsement for the categories and obscure micro-genres, the challenge more than a technology one. We multitude of content recommendation AIs limited and confining search and filtering need a shift within the very product-driven many streaming services have put so much functions, and the infernal auto-play trailers culture of Streaming Tech to a more user- (my personal pet peeve) empowered approach – specifically when it are really starting to comes to the content selection and curation grate on the nerves of process. streamers. Many long-standing online companies And of course, have been perfecting the use of interactive the more people customization and filtering tools for decades. stream, the more of an In fact, they are some of the basic tenets of annoyance it becomes. the internet and e-commerce. The streaming This sad state of affairs world could easily borrow from some of the is especially irritating tried and true, “lean-forward” techniques to the self-determined of these businesses, such as online retail, millennial generation, publishing and travel. Granted, translating who value freedom, these concepts to the TV screen using the control, flexibility and clunky remote control as a navigation device ultra-customization surely doesn’t lend itself to ease of use. But

32 it’s not an insurmountable hurdle. Sandra Bullock. Then sort by director? intros while you’re binging an individual Imagine if you could harness the multiple- —Those options should be a few clicks show. Others have enabled very lightweight criteria filtering capabilities of Zappos, the away. customization buried deep within the user self-curation controls of Flipboard and the profile sections on their or mobile sorting capabilities of Expedia to help you Some services have attempted to address apps. But so much more could be done. determine exactly what you’d like to watch this with predictive or related search Emerging platform aggre-gators (like on an average Saturday night. Here are a few functionality, which I’ve found to be middling Apple and Roku) may have plans to enable ways to start the ball rolling toward more at best, and way off-base, at worst. Amazon some feature control on a platform level, user-empowered Streaming UX. borrows from their e-commerce roots to which could be helpful. However, most allow for multi-layer filtering of video on subscribers watch streaming services across • Customizable Home Screen Displays - The their desktop and mobile experiences, but multiple platforms and devices, so giving ability for a user to organize and personalize they haven’t carried it over to their TV app. users more control on a service level is a the home screen of an app/streaming service better solution. to their taste. For instance: Of course, a major counter-argument to user-empowered streaming UX is that Want to always see New Releases in the streaming services need to promote and top row? And Nature Documentaries curate their best titles. They’ve invested below that because that happens millions (even billions) into original titles to be your thing? And so on… and high-stakes libraries to drive awareness, — Users should be able to arrange the trial, retention and increasingly important content rows that are displayed and at brand equity. I totally get it and I believe that what levels. • Features Checklists - Giving people the they absolutely should (and must) highlight ability to turn certain features on or off within their best wares. Don’t want to see the Recommended Rom- an app should be as easy as subscribing But the right to showcase top content Com row, just because you watched that or unsubscribing to an e-newsletter. For and the option of user personalization are one Hugh Grant movie six months ago? instance: not necessarily mutually exclusive. There — Let users easily remove certain is enough screen real estate to go around, if categories or micro-genres from the Want to disable auto-play trailers (or at smartly engineered and cleverly carved up. display to create a more focused, less least have the option to mute their volume), I’m sure that there are ways to solve it, given cluttered screen. stop next episode auto-plays completely, all the smart technical, product and creative turn on credits-skipping and closed talent there is in the industry. • Ramp Up the Filters & Sorting captions for all titles in one fell swoop? And let’s not forget that this type of Capabilities – Think about how much time — Imagine if each streaming service had customer-centric thinking will actually could be saved if you were able to punch in an easy-to-use personalization screen or help the streaming services in the long run. multiple criteria to surface exactly what you module that allowed you to check or Personalization contributes to customer were in the mood to watch. Then sort the uncheck a few boxes to enable or disable stickiness and higher retention rates, which results by various components. And those these options, just like you would with will become increasingly important as new controls were front and center (or at least parental controls. high-profile players enter the space and the easy to find). For instance: streaming wars begin in earnest. Some services do allow for a degree Want to see Comedies made in the of feature control on an asset basis. For Nothing But Choice 90’s? And drill down to those starring example, on Netflix you can skip credits and OTT is on its way to becoming the dominant way of watching video, and the last thing we need is to stall or jeopardize its progress by not helping users get a handle on, what is essentially, too much of a good thing – content. At core, OTT streaming is about customer choice and empowerment. It’s about options and personalization. It’s about transparency and control. What it’s definitely NOT about is expecting newly liberated consumers to go back to the type of one-way relationship that Traditional Pay TV Providers forced on them for many years, when there were no other choices. Now, for better or worse, there is nothing but choice (I, for one, think it’s for better). Services that focus on giving users the tools to navigate this newfound choice will be the ones that have an advantage that will translate into streamers’ hearts and minds. And most importantly, into happy, loyal subscribers. �

Cobblecord provides a content selection platform to help frustrated viewers. OTT Executive 33 Spring 2019 Magazine Executive Insights OTT End Game: Allow Major Players to Dominate, or Change the Rules? By: David Price

o say the TV and Media business is in the user experience, AI is being used to make transition is an understatement, but to say far more accurate recommendations. The David Price has driven T transformational ac- that it is in turmoil is equally an overstatement. use of Cloud computing is taking the load of tivities providing ad- Everywhere we read about the record- creating a compelling user experience away vanced technology breaking losses in pay TV subscribers. We from the home, allowing far cheaper CPE in the TV and Media industry since the hear a constant stream of news about industry and generating the agility and flexibility transition to digital consolidation such as Synamedia arising to constantly refresh and improve the user technology. He has from the remains of Cisco’s video business experience. Finally, we are seeing, at last, the driven aggressive top and bottom line (with Technicolor picking over what was left “any” finish line; i.e. any content, any time, growth as an executive in a number of leading com- of their set top box business) and Arris being on any device, anywhere. munications technology companies around the bought by Commscope. We have seen private A recent report showed that the number world. Currently he holds a number of Board and advisory positions in the TV and Media technology equity getting in with their investments in of connected devices capable of displaying industry and is Principal at Scala Advisors LLC. Imagine (formerly Harris Broadcast) and video has doubled in the last decade. Industry MediaKind (formerly Ericsson TV & Media, icons have said publicly that “Hollywood is formerly Tandberg Television), for example. Dead” and Netflix has become a powerhouse enforced. Where net neutrality prevails, you The way we view video entertainment is of content production. Fighting back, the will see D2C become predominant. Content changing with and Facebook now studios have seized the mantra of D2C (Direct there will be King for sure and ownership of starting to become a significant place where to Consumer). Libraries that have been sports rights will only add to that “King’s” people source their streams. Even the free-to- gathering dust for decades are now starting power. Where net neutrality has been air sector is transforming itself, such as in the to become available for consumption by end abandoned the role of the connectivity USA with ATSC 3.0. Nearly all the changes subscribers. A recent survey by JP Morgan provider will become King, especially where have their roots in the ubiquity of the internet. predicts that Disney’s new D2C service will the provider also owns rights. Interestingly, This is now bringing the power of Artificial garner more than 160m subscribers and thus cable operators will remain the best way Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) into become a real threat to Netflix, who today to provide IP connectivity to the user, even the mix. has a mere 139m subscribers. However, with the emergence of 5G, which will take In the encoding process, AI is being used privately many question the length of time it longer to become ubiquitous due to the cost to only consume bandwidth that is necessary will take to get past the 100m mark. Using AI and infrastructure density needed, especially to avoid artifacts and errors that the human and Cloud, viewers will be able to search for outside high-density populations. So far, visual system can perceive. In the delivery and find the content they want easily using cable operators have avoided being labeled as process, AI is being used to predict rather voice that seems to be accelerating in power a utility (which, in their primary roles as ISPs, than just react to consumption patterns. In on an almost annual basis. AI will be the next surely they truly are). Will administrations primary mover, after IP, in the transformation emerge that are strong enough to categorize of the video entertainment industry ISPs as utilities, powerful enough to So, what will the end game look like? Well enforce net neutrality and brave enough to one thing is for certain—bigger beats smaller forcibly split companies that own rights and and content will always be King (or at least connectivity? Judging by current conditions a face card). The bigger studios will continue we would be wise to not hold out breath. � to swallow the smaller ones and D2C will become ubiquitous. At the same time, the major ISPs will continue to grow and will add content rights through acquisition and/ or in-house productions. These larger content owners will also accumulate, mostly by acquisition, the mission critical technology elements for the protection and primary distribution of their content. But, absent net neutrality, the power will still lie with the connectivity providers for the secondary distribution to the display device. So, you have to divide the world into those regions where net neutrality is mandatory and those places where it is either not mandated or not

34 Executive Insights How Publishers Can Capitalize on AI This Year By: David Mowrey

n 2018, social media channels limited the can leverage AI to recommend the most amount of news content distributed on their appropriate supplemental video content David Mowrey is Head I of Product and Devel- platforms; and a few months ago allegations based on the news and audience. opment for Watson against Facebook were made for inflating Media at IBM. With video ad metrics to lure publishers into ...And Also the Second, Third and Fourth nearly twenty years of three-screen product sharing content on their sites. In spite of Time development experi- these unfulfilled promises that made it tough For publishers, the first step is attracting ence, David now leads for publishers to turn a profit, the new year audiences; yet maintaining their user base product strategy and presents them with an opportunity to get back within a bustling media environment is just new business efforts for the IBM Watson Media business unit. David pre- to basics, and focus on how to make the most as important. Publishers today have the viously served as Vice President of Strategic Plan- of incoming traffic on their own sites. To opportunity to keep folks on their platforms ning & Business Development at IBM Cloud Video. capitalize on this opportunity, publishers can longer by curating highly personalized video He also served as Vice President of Product Man- agement at Clearleap, an IBM company. Prior to his turn to artificial intelligence (AI) to identify . Using AI-driven insights, publishers work at IBM and Clearleap, David served as Director and organize complex video metadata in can figure out which specific content (from of Media Solutions for Yahoo!, where he managed order to better understand everything from themes to locations, anchors and beyond) some of the company’s largest mobile and telecom visual, audible, and textual data to emotional resonates with viewers to determine what partnerships. tones and geographic locations within their an individual would be most interested in video content. With a deeper understanding seeing next. For example, if someone is extending the opportunity to monetize video of video data, publishers can leverage viewer reading about a risqué joke made on a late- content and grow ad revenue. history and behaviors to recommend the right night comedy show, one can imagine that content at exactly the right time. Here’s how playing a video of one of the skits would ...So Ads Aren’t Such a Burden to Watch publishers can use AI to captivate audiences resonate with the audience. But which one? Though 60% of video content and better monetize their content. How about content from another comedy viewers believe ads take away from their bit? AI can unlock insights to help answer overall experience, stripping publishers of a Getting it Right the First Time these questions, curating the ideal necessary revenue stream is not a plausible Within a crowded industry, publishers that keeps audiences watching clip after clip, option. The solution instead lies in creating an are constantly looking for ways to break experience where consumers are so engaged through the noise and get eyeballs on their with the videos they’re watching that they are content. Take breaking news for example: more willing to endure those advertisements. publishers have an opportunity to captivate With AI technology revealing the best videos audiences with relevant and engaging to complement news articles, consumers video. The challenge, however is acting are more likely to watch the frequent fast in order to make sure the most relevant advertisements that appear in between every content is available and ready to accompany couple of video clips, looking forward to the written content. That’s where AI comes into next piece of content. And with that level of play. With enriched metadata, editors can engagement on their platform, publishers can quickly search for video content by topic, charge a higher CPM for the brands that want and then easily determine which videos to advertise with them. will best complement a news article. For In the coming year, publishers can best example, suppose a news organization take advantage of new viewer traffic by publishes breaking news about US- China implementing AI technology to generate trade relations. AI can help determine deep understanding of their video content. whether editors should include a video of 2019 will be a breakout year for publishers the White House Press Secretary briefing to engage audiences, drive the value of their or one of political pundits explaining future content and subsequent advertising revenue implications of the relationship, reducing the up, and improve the overall experience for time it takes to get important news coverage consumers in a today’s competitive digital- out to the public. With so much of today’s media age. � news coming in the form of push notifications, delivered straight to individual users, timing is even more important. To ensure audience attention, retention and loyalty, publishers AI can unlock insights into your audience.

OTT Executive 35 Spring 2019 Magazine Executive Q&A As Traditional TV and OTT Blend Together, New Challenges Arise Interview by Nichole Janowsky with Nagra’s Senior Vice President of Marketing, Ivan Verbesselt

ichole Janowsky caught up with key factors in today’s TV landscape. Ivan Verbesselt, Nagra’s Senior Vice Our cloud-based and OTT solutions are Ivan Verbesselt is N Senior Vice President President of Marketing to discuss many of perfectly suited for this new environment. Marketing at NA- the pressing topics surrounding OTT today. They include cloud SSP, our cloud-based GRA. Previously, Ivan Security Service Platform, a unified and was Vice President in charge of Alcatel’s TV Nichole: Thanks for meeting with us. Please flexible platform for managing all operator business, otherwise tell us how you believe the OTT market is content security requirements across all known as Information, evolving and how NAGRA is supporting that screens; advanced and off-the shelf OTT Communication and Entertainment (ICE) evolution? solutions, such as the OpenTV Suite and after having led the Product Marketing and CTO of- Conax GO Live; and a new low-latency fice of Alcatel’s DSL business. Ivan started his career Ivan: With traditional TV and OTT rapidly Sports OTT Streaming offering that delivers in in 1990 with Alcatel’s Cor- becoming synonymous, TV is simply an immersive fan experience for sports porate Research department and has held various positions in product management for broadband considered TV no matter how or where leagues and teams. All of our OTT solutions access products and services, both within Alcatel it is consumed. The viewer is in charge, are suited for any device, including Android and Belgacom, and was Principal of Quadratio Con- setting the tone for what the market must TV. sulting Ltd, focusing on Broadband TV. deliver to enable them to watch the content And, while OTT has opened up many they love wherever, whenever and however possibilities for content owners and service Nichole: Cord-cutting is accelerating, and they choose. In this environment, operators providers, we can’t ignore the fact that it’s consumers are becoming more comfortable are playing catch-up. Driving innovation also fueled new forms of piracy, such as with their OTT content options. But they forward will depend on the service provider illegal IPTV services and Kodi add-ons – are still overwhelmed with their choices and embracing its role as super aggregator to which are a huge area of focus for NAGRA. how to discover content that is meaningful to help consumers find what they want to watch Ultimately, the solution to fight piracy is a them. How does NAGRA help them improve easily and in a personalized way. combination of content protection, anti- their user experience? And, that’s where NAGRA comes in. We piracy services and forensic watermarking help ensure efficient on-boarding of OTT – which we provide to protect premium Ivan: That’s a huge issue and pay-TV content, effective content value protection content assets, fight pirate services across operators have the opportunity to play a and an elegant data-driven approach to all distribution networks and ensure the best key role to solve the problem, which goes content discovery – one that actively drives experience possible for viewers. straight to my earlier point of pay-TV service loyalty and monetization, which are embracing their role as super-aggregators. To expand, a super aggregator is a player that is consumer-facing, boasts a large user base, and is primarily a branded content distributor that delivers superior value for consumers through choice, flexible packages, price and convenience. This includes onboarding new content and being able to help consumers find what they want to watch easily and in a personalized way. A successful super-aggregator will take a very pragmatic approach towards blending different OTT content bouquets into a coherent experience. We are moving towards a world where there will be a platform-agnostic approach to distributing TV content and video, blended together, and made available across all networks and devices. Users need to be able to switch between multiple services effortlessly with a simple, uncluttered and engaging interface that doesn’t overwhelm them with options. At the same time, UIs and backend Are you overwhelmed with all the OTT content choices? business and security services platforms

36 at the regional and international level, while working with experienced anti-piracy vendors. It is also about communicating key messages effectively to consumers about the impact that illegal streaming, IPTV services and Kodi add-ons have on the future of premium OTT content including live sports.

Nichole: Nagra has been a leader in the industry for a long time. Does Nagra have any upcoming initiatives you can share with us?

Ivan: If I have to pick one that would most interest your readers, it would be our new OTT Sports streaming solution which I referenced earlier on. We saw an opportunity to work with sports leagues, teams and rights owners to Nagra’s new OTT Sports streaming solution. help them create unique connections with fans worldwide—doing so on any screen, anywhere and anytime—which has become must create a bridge between content silos. platform investments. the new standard for the sports industry. With numerous needs to address, such as However, in terms of video delivery integrating various sources of content, Nichole: Piracy is a big topic these days and performance, operations and reach, this is running cloud operations and offering more the threat seems to have grown bigger along challenging to accomplish. flexibility, players in the M&E space must with the growth of OTT. What is NAGRA Yet we’re making it a reality. By have the right strategy in place for success doing in this space to help content owners collaborating with leading content, and these are all areas in which NAGRA can and rights holders safeguard their assets? cloud and fiber network partners such as help. TATA Communications and leveraging Ivan: We couldn’t agree more and have other Kudelski Group technologies like Nichole: What about the role of data worked extensively over the last few years SKIDATA’s field-proven fan engagement and analytics, how can they improve the to help both Pay-TV service providers and solution, NAGRA is delivering scalable, low- experience—and does NAGRA have a play content owners combat the threat, particularly latency streaming technology integrated with here? in the area of live sports streaming. our OpenTV Suite to enable sports leagues Technology is proving to be a crucial tool and teams to deliver an immersive sports Ivan: Absolutely. Today, more than ever, in fighting commercial piracy (the paid-for OTT fan experience directly to consumers data, advanced analytics and AI are the pirate services) through the combination worldwide, and on any device, including keys to automating and improving customer of anti-piracy services and watermarking Android TV. service operations to reduce churn, delivering technology. Coupled together, they allow It’s live OTT streaming “from the field more relevant advertising, personalizing service providers and sports content owners to the screen” that also provides fans with content recommendations, and helping to identify illicit streaming services. They an exciting app and channel-based user companies optimize the full value and cost of also enable them to identify the source of experience, from live events, to highlights, their content portfolio. the content leaks feeding such pirate servers. stats, fantasy sports and more. It also relies While OTT and social media platforms This is now possible for both broadcast and on our forensic watermarking technology such as Netflix and Facebook have built their OTT-distributed sports content, through a and anti-piracy services to fight off pirate success on the ability to capture, analyze and unique, invisible identifier (the watermark) streaming services and protect the business act on data and AI to deliver a consumer- added into the content itself. model of sports rights holders. driven experience, the pay-TV industry has A great example is NAGRA’s work with We’re very excited at the opportunities been comparatively slow to adapt to the new Deutsche Fußball Liga (DFL). Focusing and look forward to sharing more in the near analytics and AI-driven world. on IPTV piracy, DFL and NAGRA have future! � Few have been able to properly collect, collaborated to tackle pirated live sports implement and use data to gain valuable content—a challenge requiring fast action insights to improve their pay-TV service and given live sport is only valuable while it’s overall business operations. However, we happening. This has included a unique want to change that, and developed a solution combination of forensic watermarking, to harness data as the new currency. takedown capabilities, technical counter- NAGRA Insight is a pay-TV data measures, legal action and a global network analytics platform that leverages AI to drive that provides DFL with the right foundation subscriber value, content acquisition and to beat piracy at its source. management, operations and advertising. Ultimately, the key to tackling this new Through actionable insight, we help service sports piracy ecosystem requires the rights providers deliver better business results owners and distributors to forge a closer and free up resources for next generation partnership with the TV and video ecosystem

OTT Executive 37 Spring 2019 Magazine Trends & Analysis Bringing OTA and OTT Together: A Roll-Out Plan for ATSC 3.0 NextGen Broadcast By: Fred Baumgartner

n 1995, in the , the Grand backward compatible ATSC 2.0 standard Alliance published what was to become to a greenfield ATSC 3.0. (ATSC is the Fred Baumgartner is I a long-time broadcast ATSC 1.0—more commonly known as organization that gave us the standards that engineer with a back- Digital TV. In 2009, the last analog stations drove the nearly 20-year long transition from ground in Over-the-Air, in America signed off leaving an all digital analog to digital TV that concluded in 2009). OTT, mobile TV, Cable and Satellite TV who broadcast television system. From the The reasoning within the broadcast industry has been an architect beginning, there were objections to ATSC was that the interim 2.0 standard simply did and consultant for im- 1.0 because of its inflexibility and very poor not do enough because it left a long list of plementation of new mobile performance. In time, as previously compromises and didn’t improve TV enough and often disruptive media technologies. unforeseen OTT became viable, it became to justify its use. Faultiest of all -- 2.0 was not clear that a broadcast television platform that extensible. did not support all of what OTT offered would Broadcasting has historically depended on other impairments that make massive OTT soon relegate over-the-air TV broadcast to standards that define how it is transmitted (or streaming on the Internet challenging. antiquity. The ATSC 3.0 standard recently modulated —the physical layer) and how it It’s easy to see that the OTA/OTT adopted and now being put on air aligns is decoded (or demodulated – broadcasting’s architecture has a cost of delivery that can be broadcast TV with OTT and supports very layer 2) and displayed (all of the specifications orders of magnitude less per viewer than the robust transmission into homes, offices, that define how TV is compressed, etc. as in existing infrastructure. More than that, the vehicles and portable devices. 720P and 1080i – skipping directly to layer cost of the existing OTT infrastructure can be 6). reduced by leveraging NextGen’s ability to Overview ATSC 3.0 is basically a dumb, but very off-load a significant amount of peak traffic. NextGen Broadcast is the all- uniquely useful pipe with two principal use A popular metaphor is to say “that NextGen encompassing upgrade to the Internet that cases. The first is simply to replicate the adds an HOV lane to the Internet highway.” allows TV, radio and all manner of content standard broadcast function of delivering to be distributed as IP, supplanting the audio and video to simple TVs and . How it works linear and immutable century old ubiquitous The second use case is far more interesting. NextGen Broadcast uses the current technology that we know as traditional TV Here, the NextGen pipe appends the existing TV . In the United States, what and radio. Internet’s pipe in a home “NextGen gateway” remains of the UHF broadcast TV allocation For most of the Internet’s 48 years, video – at Layer 3—IP network. Done correctly, is the bandwidth between 470 and 608 MHz which now wholly dominates Internet volume the combined (“hybrid RF/IP”) bits are (Channels 14-36) after the “repacking” and continues to grow – was impractical. It indistinguishable to the higher layers. In the is complete. The VHF spectrum remains requires an expensive universe of fat pipes, simplest view, NextGen implements a form (Channel 2-13), but the lower VHF edge servers, and managed networks to of Layer 3 Least Cost Routing (LCR). Bits frequencies don’t have the reach UHF does, workaround the Internet’s limitations. that need to go to many destinations with and thus are more useful for things other than For all of Over-the-Air (OTA) Broadcast’s maximum quality in real-time, go through the NextGen Broadcast to mobile devices. VHF is 107 years, interactivity and extensibility NextGen RF Internet pipe. Everything else— suitable for feeding NextGen home gateways – which is necessary for everything from return communication with viewer requests where larger and often outside antennas dynamic advertising to supporting higher and data, content with few destinations, and are viable and as a Studio Link quality content, customization and any all the usual email and WEB traffic— remain (STL) to feed Single Frequency Network advanced user experience – was unrealized. on the traditional Internet infrastructure. (SFN) Booster stations. Any number of piecemeal enhancements Figure 1 illustrates the relationships have been proposed, demonstrated and tested; Why that Matters for Streaming between the video display devices, the but all have fallen far short of expectations as The most demanding streaming is for existing Internet and NextGen Broadcast. For they were unable to break the basic bonds of live (real-time) high bandwidth, high QOS OTT video distribution, the existing Internet Broadcast’s technology legacy. applications; the Super Bowl, Olympics, attempts to mitigate its limitations with NextGen Broadcast promises to make the Presidential addresses, etc. ATSC 3.0 technology like Adaptive Bit Rate (ABR) largest single improvement in the history of provides inexpensive, high QOS distribution encoding, and Content Distribution Networks the Internet itself. that relieves the wired/wireless RAN (CDN) with edge servers to provide high- Internet of much of this burden. The OTA quality service. Every viewer represents The Back Story broadcast part is key. The architecture of a unique stream and the investment in NextGen Broadcast has been in the NextGen creates a simple, one-way, radio infrastructure must be made to accommodate making since the Advanced Television frequency path that bypasses all of the walled that. Rural Internet customers are particularly Systems Committee drifted away from a gardens, congestion, hand-offs, ISPs and hard to supply as bandwidths are often limited

38 often to that available from Wireless Internet take advantage of higher bit rates (larger transmission can utilize up to 1,000,000 Service Providers (WISPs) or IP-satellite displays) and can receive the more fragile Watts effective radiated power (ERP) under services at costs that are significantly higher “enhancement” layers will decode both current regulation. The wireless RAN must and speeds that are significantly lower than layers. Unlike ABR, scalable video-enabled limit interference between towers and the urban customers experience. Making OTT receivers don’t waste the lower bit rate power allowed is much lower, typically in available to wireless users requires a Radio encodes, but build upon the base layer to the 100-Watt range. Access Network (RAN) that we know of as a make a better picture. Figure 1 also shows that content is fed to plethora of carriers, cell towers and cell sites. QOS in NextGen Broadcast isn’t both NextGen and streaming encoders. Being The last mile to most homes is via Cable dependent upon the ever-varying effects of able to move seamlessly between the legacy TV, wires, fiber and IP satellite having to share the “best effort” infrastructure Internet and NextGen service improves the services. The conventional last-mile and that dominates the WEB streaming experience of both. This creates a hierarchy RANs are all expansive but expensive. conversation; instead it’s simply about of accessibility. If a device can receive the Figure 1 also shows NextGen’s overlay whether one can receive a given PLP. When full OTA feed and take advantage of it (small to the existing Internet. Rather than an a PLP can be received reliably, the quality is devices are unlikely to be able to use the ABR encoding with various quantum steps unimpaired, lossless and perfect – regardless enhanced, high resolution content), they do. of quality to accommodate the wide range of how many viewers are watching or If the OTA feed is completely unavailable of QOS the Internet provides, NextGen whatever other traffic issues exist anywhere -- even the low payload-high resiliency base Broadcast can deliver content with different else on the Internet. layer -- the device goes to the Internet if payload sizes and different robustness. NextGen has two powerful tools to extend available and negotiates the highest data rate Part of NextGen’s extensibility is that connectivity and improve it. On the user side, available that it can use. broadcasters can break up their service into it’s the receive . For a few dollars, There are complexities with both content Physical Layer Pipes (PLPs) and each can even a distant rural customer that can only restrictions and cost. While the WEB feed have a different throughput and robustness. receive Internet services via satellite, can might be available anywhere, current Consider a broadcaster that elects to send likely receive NextGen Broadcast services. broadcast TV content is most often restricted both a very robust but bandwidth limited In the case of a smart phone, the antenna is for use in a defined geographic area (there service on one PLP, and another payload built-in and thus a compromise, so a robust are 210 DMAs [Designated Market Area] intensive but fragile PLP. The robust payload signal is necessary for a good experience. in the U.S.). Some content rights prohibit is suitable for mobile devices in a hostile Unlike current broadcast services, NextGen Internet distribution entirely (the reasoning (RF) environment. The Broadcast uses orthogonal frequency- is that it may be easier to misappropriate and other is suitable for where a home NextGen division (OFDM), OFDM the quality might degrade the product making gateway has a non-moving (fixed), well- enables booster transmitters all on the same the viewer experience less than desired and placed (often a “leaf” antenna in a window frequency without interference in a SFN. impacting future views). By tradition, if you -- and in the case of rural homes, a roof-top) Present-day broadcast — and wireless RANs can receive the OTA signal, you can watch it antenna. for that matter — achieve expanded coverage even if you are outside of the DMA. Satellite, The NextGen Broadcaster is likely to by inefficiently using additional and diverse Cable and “translators” (small transmitters take advantage of Scalable Video Codecs spectrum. ATSC 3.0 synchronously reuses that rebroadcast to hard to reach locations) (SHEVC). Here, a “base layer” of content the same spectrum at each SFN booster site can relay a TV station’s program to viewers, is transmitted robustly. Devices that can to enhance service reliability. NextGen UHF but usually only within the DMA. Internet streaming has similar restrictions. There is a gray area where a viewer can -- via the Internet – view content from the home, including local stations, anywhere. NextGen might be the opportunity to formally extend that privilege for those who might want to watch local news, etc., while travelling. Cost too is an issue. While viewers are important in TV’s ad supported business model, margins are often too thin to profitably support the Internet CDN costs. Conceivably, a viewer whose smart TV or smart phone reverts to Internet connectivity, might ask the viewer to pick up the additional cost. The initial buildout of the wireless RAN and cell phone service first used a sparse network of long-range cell sites. Over time, additional sites were brought on-line to fill in gaps and shadows and better reuse spectrum. The RAN is constantly being improved as economics dictate. It is likely that NextGen broadcast will follow a similar path. You can’t realize revenue if the customer can’t access your product. The end game for Figure 1: NextGen Broadcast provides a simpler, less expensive, higher quality IP NextGen is to have the entire UHF spectrum delivery path that is perfect for mass distribution of content. in use to provide nearly seamless coverage

OTT Executive 39 Spring 2019 Magazine from coast to coast. Current FCC regulations the typical WAN/ISP connection. What is gateway is as the ultimate edge server. do not allow this, but regulations can be unique is that it also has an “RF front end,” The closer the edge server the better the changed. that connects to an antenna that receives performance. Some functions are well known As with the wireless RAN, building the broadcast NextGen signals. With any and popular. Digital Video Recorder (DVR) penetration is important. With more SFN luck, broadcasters will share tower sites functions and common media storage can be NextGen boosters, penetration improves and architecture, so all channels have nearly supported for the home from the NextGen and with more signal, you can also increase identical coverage. This level of cooperation gateway. payload size. Because for broadcast, a kilowatt both keeps the costs of the distribution Digital Ad Insertion (DAI) is a must for at the corner is better than a Megawatt on the network low and makes NextGen a better most business plans. Current TV broadcast mountain, NextGen SFNs are likely to be more consistent service. In an urban, well- advertising is very inefficient in that unlike constantly developing with time. covered area, the antenna might be a simple the world of Internet advertising ad tech; TV “whip” antenna attached directly to the commercials are broadcast to lots of people Devices gateway device, probably via an F-connector who have no value to the advertiser. DAI can Figure 1 shows that NextGen can be as is traditional for TV antennas and cable change that for broadcasters. The NextGen received directly by a 3.0 ready smart TV. gateway can store the spots for insertion and television receiver, and if connected, some More often, a “patch” or “leaf” (they look host the ad decision machinery that selects interactivity and viewing data can be returned. like a leaf from a tree and are widely used for the ads to be played and reports back that Inserting spots in programming as part of any DTV reception) stuck to an outside window an ad has been properly placed for billing digital ad insertion (DAI) scheme is difficult is ideal. In rural America, the traditional UHF purposes. Of course, part or all of this can given the likely limited on-board storage. outdoor TV antenna attached via a coaxial live in the cloud, though there are caveats. Most schemes reward DAI-connected cable is called for. Internally, multiple tuners, One edge case is the Super Bowl. If every customers with special incentives that are usually four, receive the channels as needed. time a commercial availability comes along, not offered to those that are not connected. A Multiple tuners allow the gateway to do more. every NextGen household pulls the spot from smart TV needs to receive any insertion from In time, the technology will likely shift to the cloud, it represents a lot of peak demand. the Internet either exactly when needed, or front ends that continuously and seamlessly Then there are the cost and moments before, if cache is available. receive the entire 138 MHz width of the UHF issues. Is it better to have the commercial Smart phones and tablets are a very NextGen band. placed once at the NextGen gateway (aka special use case. They are used as a portable local edge server) than to pull it repeatedly smart TV, but they can also be used as from the CDN? a very capable TV remote control in the The NextGen gateway also has to “second screen” scenario or out-of-home manage different devices and displays. This (OOH), extending the viewer’s access to is more than transcoding -- the desired user their content while they are mobile. Mobile/ experience allows viewers to change rooms portable viewing represents a large audience and devices seamlessly. Handling different that currently is not directly accessible to device user interfaces is challenging. In any broadcasters due to technology limitations. The rest of the NextGen gateway is case, the user experience and profitability Nor is it efficiently or reliably reached by familiar. There is likely a WiFi built depend upon the NextGen gateway, user OTT on the Wireless RAN in the same way in and probably an Ethernet port or two for experience and extensive and improving supported by NextGen. For this reason, most physically connected devices in the home middleware and applications. broadcasters have a “mobile first” strategy LAN. There needs to be a substantial amount in place for their conversion to NextGen. of storage. There also needs to be substantial When? Vehicles also play into this scenario as processing power. The NextGen gateway Speed of adoption, or success at all, is elaborate audio services to update the car closely resembles a home media server always difficult to predict. Broadcasters need radio are planned by some, while others system. NextGen broadcast, and the basic conversion look to NextGen as an economical means The core of the NextGen home gateway of an existing transmitter is fairly inexpensive of updating maps and real-time services like is the middleware that manages a very large and easy. Something like half the country is traffic and very detailed road hazard and assortment of functions. Managing the expected to have their first NextGen coverage other information. network connections is the primary purpose. in the next year or so. How quickly and how The world of IOT is also certainly a Implicit in that is conditional access (CAS) viewers are incentivized to bring NextGen beneficiary of NextGen broadcast. As and encryption. Even if the content is to be gateways, or even ATSC 3.0 TVs, into their with any disruptive and enabling technical consumed without cost, there is likely to be lives is yet to be determined. But one thing advance, it is impossible to see what the a requirement that it is distributed encrypted. is for certain; NextGen broadcast has the world will be like as it matures. Rights management can be complex, but potential to dramatically affect both the OTA it tends to apply to the whole home, so and OTT video businesses. � The NextGen “Gateway” managing this in the NextGen gateway rather There is not yet a good name for this than each device makes sense. More than critical piece of hardware. It has to exist in that, devices in a home work best when they some form, although there is great latitude in work together. Simple things like the “second what functions and features it will support, screen” experience, where a tablet or smart or whether it is hardware or a cloud service. phone is used as a remote control for the A smart phone or smart TV will have some larger screens and to enable social media in limited version of the NextGen gateway conjunction with the content being consumed functionality. require this NextGen gateway. Each NextGen home service gateway has Another way of looking at the NextGen

40 Best Practices DRM Pricing Demystified

By: Gabe Elton

ast year, in “Purchasing DRM Services: What is a License? Gabe Elton is the LAn Insider’s View” I wrote about The next obvious question becomes – Director of Sales at different options for purchasing DRM. In that what do you consider a license? In order BuyDRM. Gabe is article, we compared Service Agreements vs. to implement DRM, there are three major an expert in helping large-scale Media and Software License Agreements and explained things that need to happen. Entertainment brands the various models offered by DRM vendors navigate through and how they relate to your business. 1. In order to encrypt the content, it must the various studio- approved services and With this piece we hope to further be encoded into a suitable streaming format solutions required by demystify questions around DRM pricing and then packaged using encryption keys content owners and offered through the KeyOS Plat- that will further your understanding of how – MPEG-DASH packaging for PlayReady form. By assisting customers in dozens of countries DRM fits into your budgeting requirements. and Widevine DRM technologies, and HLS and on every inhabitable continent, Gabe has devel- oped the knowledge and insight to understand the We will be focusing on DRM as a Service packaging for FairPlay DRM technology. complexities of the OTT Landscape and how impor- (DaaS) rather than a perpetual software tant content security is to that puzzle. license model. 2. The Middleware or CMS must be able to allow you to authenticate your user and How is DRM Usually Priced? pass a token or an authentication xml to the How often that happens depends on several The most common format of DRM pricing player. This authentication xml is encrypted different factors. The first is how that content that you will see across the industry usually and digitally signed by you and includes the is packaged. In a VOD scenario, if each title includes differing buckets of licenses that are rights that you would like to express to the is packaged with a separate encryption key, a included each month as part of your monthly user. new license will have to be delivered for each fee. Once the bucket has been depleted in any new piece of content viewed on each device. 30-day cycle, overage tiers are offered that 3. The player will notice that the content is However, if an entire catalogue of content is become less expensive the more licenses that encrypted and first check to see if it already encrypted with a single key, a single license you use. has a license to play the content. If it does will unlock the entire catalogue. These buckets start as small as 10,000 not, it will ping the DRM services’ server for Similarly, for live content, if each channel licenses and move on to infinity. Packages the decryption key. is packaged with a separate key then each may include tiers, such as 40K, 400K, 4M, channel will require a separate license. If 40M and Unlimited licensing. The more Each response = 1 license with each they are packaged with the same key, then a licenses that you buy, the less expensive they license tied to the specific device that is single license will unlock them all. become per license. consuming the content. Can Licenses be Persistent? Another factor to consider is which playback platform the content is being consumed on, and perhaps more importantly, does the player support persistent licensing. Downloads of DRM-protected content have been supported for nearly a decade now. However, the main question here is not whether your DRM Service provider supports persistent licensing and downloads, but whether your PLAYER supports it. The reason this becomes important is that, depending on the playback platform, an O/S embedded player, Set Top Box player, HTML5 player, or A/V player may be closed or otherwise shut down, and it will not store the license. This means that even if the same device or same user were to try to access the same piece of content, a new license will need to be delivered. You should look for Players and Player SDKs that support downloads and persistent

OTT Executive 41 Spring 2019 Magazine licensing as a standard feature. This means have terms around how often those keys must At BuyDRM, we have been working on licenses can remain on the device after the be rotated. such a model internally and are very close initial play, avoiding the need for a new Without knowing the terms of the to releasing standardized flat rate pricing license to be requested and delivered each agreements with the content owners and the based on devices and/or users. However, time the downloaded content is played within habits of your users, budgeting for DRM based on our experience, the least expensive the license’s term. purchased on a consumption-based model is route from the customer standpoint is clearly nearly impossible. conventional consumption-based pricing. But Wait, There’s More But if the ability to easily budget and factor DRM service providers offering multi- Per Device Pricing in costs associated with DRM into your format support are generally agnostic to For many DRM service buyers, it seems downstream business logic exceeds the fear how your content is packaged or how long that the simplest, most convenient business of a consumption-based model, you will be you would like a license to remain valid on model would be built on a flat, per-device happy to learn that per device and/or per user the viewer’s device. From their standpoint, or per-subscriber fee. Indeed, this would pricing model availability is increasing. while not best practice, you could package all make life much easier for budgeting, and your content with the same key and leave the for this simplicity buyers may be willing to Which Works Best for You? license valid forever (if the player supports pay more. Fixed DRM costs are easier to For customers willing to pay the it). However, the content owners probably work into the pricing structure and business additional cost of risk mitigation in order have a different opinion. plan and, once accounted for, can easily be to streamline their budgeting requirements, In order to estimate your license usage, it covered. Some DRM service providers have service vendors like ourselves at BuyDRM is important to review your agreement with taken on this challenge, but it is important are beginning to offer the flexibility to choose the content owner or licensor. Content owners to recognize that since the actual costs scale a flat per device/ per subscriber pricing will most likely require that you package with consumption, these service providers model. Depending on your budgeting needs each piece of content with a different key. are accepting the risk of unexpected and audience demand variability, you may They may even have requirements around consumption and unanticipated costs. As a find this a valuable alternative to the more how long those licenses can remain valid. result, these models will be priced to cover conventional consumption-based models. With live content, they will most likely also the risk. The choice is yours. �

Congratulations to our past OTT Executive Summit Product Speedcase winners!

Past Winners: NYC 2018

NYC 2017

NYC 2016

NYC 2015 (Tie)

42

Trends & Analysis Why the Content Hub Could be the Answer to Today’s Streaming Wars By: Brice Clinton

ith new streaming platforms on the rise on content—specifically original content— — from Walmart, ESPN+, Disney+, providers must change the way they value Brice Clinton is a Sen- W ior Engineer at CSG FOX and NBC, coupled with giants like and monetize their programming. where he builds the Netflix, Hulu, and the like — the way we strategies and so- consume content is changing drastically. Disruption Changes the Competitive lutions that power digital media services, What does this shift translate into for an ideal Landscape content delivery, digi- consumer experience? Options, options, and The streaming wars are a never-ending tal service monetiza- more options. cycle of providers working to be number tion and cutting-edge consumer experienc- Streaming providers offer a myriad of one when it comes to content consumption – es. Brice also serves an Adjunct Professor at North- choices to grow revenue and compete with which at their inceptions was volume play. As western University where he leads a course devoted companies not typically in their competitive that streaming market has grown and brought to technology in sports. mix. A perfect example — Walmart (with those consumers that volume of content, its service) entering the programming the focus of those consumers has shifted to space to compete with Netflix’s production stronger quality of content, not quantity. The The dramatic (and positive) impact of this and service model. leader in the space, Netflix, took this route was on prime display at this years’ Oscars On the surface, it may seem advantageous in their past; churning out loads of content, where Netflix’s programming earned the for consumers to be given nearly limitless but quickly realizing that quality perhaps company multiple Oscar nods, including options from non-traditional content creators plays a bigger role in their overall business a Best Picture nomination for Roma. and distributors; however, it can pose a strategy. In pursuing the volume play, Netflix Though not Oscar-nominated, Bird Box challenge to service providers and consumers inadvertently created a new set of growing starring Sandra Bullock was watched on a alike. For service providers that challenge is pains moving from a content aggregator to a whopping 45 million Netflix accounts. All ensuring profitability and staying competitive content creator. of these examples demonstrate that for those in an increasingly large field of players. For However, when original programming providers who want to deliver on a superior consumers it is options, options, and more can only be accessed on a singular platform, content promise, they’re going to have to options. With a new, unprecedented emphasis it drives up the cost of quality programming. invest in the best content creators, directors and actors for the job. Thus far in 2019, we’ve seen providers double-down on this strategy, with both Netflix and Hulu raising their prices this year to allocate more funds to creating more original programming. On top of this, all three major streaming providers (Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime) invested in ads during Super Bowl LIII to promote their own original content, with Netflix doubling down and releasing the trailer for The Irishman during the Oscars. Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime are all looking to allocate funds to creating original content, which includes increasing the speed of production and better meeting their audiences – the 21st century family who is looking for more niche programming.

Choice is Empowering, But It Can Also be Paralyzing Content consumption for consumers, along with many other facets of life, is now fraught with the paradox of choice. Today, increasing numbers of consumers subscribe to more than one service (Netflix, Hulu, HBO Now and others). On top of that, there Streaming wars are never-ending. are choices within each provider. Netflix, for

44 example, offers three subscription offerings, streaming services say they’ll offer, or a providers may revert back a bit and lean on depending on the number of devices and better technology experience created by more traditional service providers, like cable, to the content quality that the consumer veteran providers like Netflix, or services serve as this unifier. This will allow them desires. Hulu offers a regular service, an that integrate directly with a consumer’s to reach a wider audience and ease the ad-sponsored service and a live television cable box. consumers’ ability to watch and pay for their service. When prices (inevitably) go up, programming. consumers will start to make the choice of A Hub to Organize the Many Options There will come a point when consumers which service to cut, meaning the Netflix With a growing number of subscriptions are going to feel overwhelmed by the price increase might not impact Netflix, but to manage, consumers are increasingly streaming options on hand and the prices it might cause consumers to rethink other craving a universal hub to view all of their that come with them. For service providers subscription services, especially if they don’t favorite programming. This hub must serve to hold onto consumers, they need to look for see the inherent value when comparing their as one place where consumers can search all ways to differentiate from the competition various streaming platforms. of their video content, while also providing and create an unparalleled offering for Ultimately, there is a tipping point for a consolidated billing and payment service consumers. Giving consumers options when consumers when they will reevaluate the to manage their subscription in one simple it comes to ease of access and content quality services they invest in. According to my invoice. A sleek interface accompanied by are huge factors that ultimately influence Gen Z class of students at Northwestern, this integrated search, voice commands and on- what services or platforms end up on the tipping point is $20 – for some consumers it demand recommendations will also improve chopping block. � could land slightly above or below, but the the user experience by providing more important point to note is that the growing customizable content. number of services available are causing According to a recent survey from CSG, 46 consumers to zero in on this cost, and what percent of streamers value featured bundles services provide the most value. Consumers that can manage all of their subscriptions – will have to consider if they’re most inclined especially millennial subscribers. To meet towards a strong content library, like Disney’s the consumer need for a universal hub, OTT

OTT Executive 45 Spring 2019 Magazine Trends & Analysis Is OTT Really More Expensive Than Other TV Buys? By: David Wiesenfeld

common perception among advertisers and ad inventory across OTT publishers is that OTT is expensive … but is that is increasingly transacted through unified ​David Wiesenfeld is the A Chief Strategist at Tru really the case? platforms. Many advertisers are now Optik, responsible for This is an important question to get executing precision-targeted OTT campaigns aligning Tru Optik’s ser- right. The notion that OTT is costly can with the scale, simplicity, and consistency of vices and deliverables with marketplace needs. dramatically affect media plans, relegating network buys. David has over 20 years’ OTT to a supporting role when strategically That leaves price perceptions as one of experience in consulting, it ought to play a big part. The belief that the few remaining barriers to large-scale strategy development, OTT pricing is literally “over the top” is an OTT buys. Linear TV also offers advanced and digital media with both brand advertisers and service providers. oft-cited reason for deploying it on a limited data-driven targeting, which is typically less basis against narrow objectives, such as expensive than OTT on a CPM basis. Are achieving incremental reach among cord indexed linear buys a more cost-effective cutters or down-funnel targeting of prime way to do targeted TV than OTT? In the case below, a luxury car manufacturer prospects.1 Refer to Figure 1 to see a real-world can buy commercial time on a set of shows Using OTT as an adjunct can sell your example that highlights the cost differences that is 5X more likely to be watched by TV investment short, especially for brands between indexed linear and OTT. consumers in the market for a luxury car than with qualified buyer sets (e.g., baby gear, pet Indexed linear uses data to improve the by the average household. But if only 2% of food) or specific target audiences. targetability of traditional TV. But you’re still the population is in the market for a luxury Consumption of ad-supported OTT buying shows, not audiences. And that makes car, then 90% of impressions still miss the continues to grow at 30% - 40% annually, all the difference. mark.

Figure: 1 1. $30 CPM is approximate cost of a targeted connected TV ad campaign including data fees. An OTT campaign featuring a blend of CTV, desktop, and mobile would have a composite CPM below $30. 2. Indexed linear inventory is typically limited to premium content. $18 CPM based on industry interviews. Reflects inventory costs plus data fees. 3. Assumes in-market luxury auto intenders are 5 times more likely than the average household to watch programs comprising the indexed linear buy.

46 OTT allows the advertiser to target just Advertisers should always request target viewing time from traditional TV, it starts the 2% of consumers shopping for luxury reach estimates for linear buys as well to raise a new question: What is the value cars. as OTT buys. These days OTT can reach proposition of linear TV advertising relative As the example illustrates, OTT’s specific audiences as effectively as linear TV to OTT? audience-based approach is far more efficient and with greater efficiency—especially for That’s one advertisers will be asking more at reaching the target, yielding an in-target younger and more affluent targets. frequently in 2019. � CPM (aka “effective CPM” or eCPM) six There are cases in which indexed linear times lower than the eCPM for indexed in combination with OTT is the sensible References: linear. More TV advertisers are using eCPM approach. Brands that appeal to a broad 1. Perceived cost was #1 factor inhibiting use of to account for the variations in targetability swath of consumers might achieve their addressable advertising (mainly comprised of OTT) across different forms of television.2 campaign goals more efficiently via indexed in a 2017 study commissioned by AT&T AdWorks and Advertiser Perceptions. Ahead of the Curve: Indexed linear can also come with an linear or even traditional linear, with a layer Addressable TV Insights. https://www.thevab.com/wp- opportunity cost. Not all luxury car intenders of OTT to deliver specific messaging to content//2017/10/ATT_WhitePaper_2017.pdf will necessarily watch one of the shows in key groups. An example would be a well- the indexed linear buy during the campaign established coffee brand whose main goal is 2. Approximately one in four advertisers use eCPM flight. Because the OTT buy is audience- brand reinforcement among coffee drinkers in media planning and the majority of advertisers based, it does not depend on a set of programs but also wants to highlight a new flavor to recognize its benefits. Ahead of the Curve: Addressable to act as a conduit to the target. Luxury car conquest heavy users of its main competitor. TV Insights. https://www.thevab.com/wp-content/ intenders have the opportunity to see the Taking targetability into account flips the uploads/2017/10/ATT_WhitePaper_2017.pdf campaign on OTT regardless of the content perception that OTT is expensive relative they consume. to linear TV. As OTT continues to siphon

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Past Winners: NYC 2018 “OTT Genius”— Suzanne Mei, People TV 1st Place 2nd Place 3rd Place “OTT Hero”— Adam Lewinson, “OTT Guru”— Greg Bernard, ION Media NYC 2017 “OTT Genius”— JR McCabe, Poker Central & eSports Productions “OTT Hero”— Nick Buzzell, NBTV Studios “OTT Guru”— Paul Hamm, Endavo NYC 2016 “OTT Genius”— Kurt Michel, IneoQuest “OTT Hero”— Don Wilcox, PBS “OTT Guru”— Roger Keating, Hearst Television NYC 2015 “OTT Genius”— Brian Balthazar, Scripps Networks “OTT Hero”— Rich Antoniello, Complex “OTT Guru”— Rick Howe, The iTV Doctor NYC 2014 “OTT Genius”— Jean-Michel Planche, Witbe “OTT Hero”— Amit Ziv, “OTT Guru”— Steve Harnsberger, OTT Digital Services Boston 2014 “OTT Genius”— James Norman, Pilotly “OTT Hero”— Jim Turner, Net2TV “OTT Guru”— (Tie) Gabriel Dusil, Visual Unity; and Jason Thibeault, Limelight Networks

OTT Executive 47 Spring 2019 Magazine Executive Insights Reigning in the Complexity of Monitoring OTT Streams By: Erik Otto

he global consumer demand for video- broadcast and a programme streamed. on-demand (VOD) and the industry’s The same standards for video, audio, and Erik Otto, CEO of Me- T diaproxy began his increasingly ambitious attempts to reach captioning that apply to traditional television career in media af- them may never see another year like this apply to OTT as well. ter studying applied one. To the already heated battle led by Not only do engineers need to ensure engineering far too long ago. He’s has had Netflix and Amazon, we can anticipate the compliance for content viewed on multiple an extensive career launch of AT&T-owned WarnerMedia’s devices and delivery outlets, they must also working in audio en- SVOD fed by Turner and HBO content - ensure a quality of service (QoS) to meet the gineering, television possibly to coincide with the final season contracts struck with providers. Keeping up broadcast, computer graphics, digital film and high-end computing. Erik of Game of Thrones. Disney, after wrestling with this complexity can be daunting, and has also founded XDT Pty Ltd, which develops the with Comcast for the right to own Fox, will that’s even without throwing live-streamed fast data transfer solution Catapult. The software- launch its “Disney +” direct to consumer content into the mix. based solution enables media companies to effi- ciently utilize internet and VPN connections via its service featuring a first Star Wars live action Compared to traditional broadcasts, OTT UDP accelerated transfer protocol. series. Apple’s highly anticipated launch of video is not only more complex, but also a video app is also in the cards, as are others cloudier. Operators need to rely on Content such as ITV - if the UK’s broadcasters don’t Delivery Networks (CDNs), or in many its own issues, which could be local or launch a collective SVOD service first. cases, several third-party networks in order originating from within the CDN. However, With premium content being split in all to deliver content. Depending on the setup, it’s very difficult to monitor exactly what is directions, this explosion of OTT will be a Adaptive Bit Rate (ABR) streams can be happening to OTT video downstream of the feast for the consumer, while at the same encoded and pre-packaged in advance before CDN. time creating confusion. It is also likely to reaching the CDN’s cloud. When relying on CDNs for OTT be highly challenging for the technical teams There should be little difference in picture services, it’s important that ABR streams are of any broadcaster onboarding these new quality once reaching edge locations and on monitored and logged not only from playout, offerings onto their platform. to the final viewing device. Though content but also from various edge locations. There There is simply no division in the may be correctly streaming from the playout are a number of issues that may occur within audiences’ mind between a programme encoder, an edge location may experience CDNs or at edge locations which may not be immediately apparent by only looking at OTT playout. These could include local blackouts, hosting and bandwidth issues. To address this, a monitoring solution must enable broadcast engineers to monitor and view both playout to the CDN and edge server return feeds streams side-by-side. In some cases, broadcasters may decide to further process OTT playout streams in the cloud. In this scenario, a high-quality mezzanine video stream is streamed to a cloud-based encoder, which then transcodes it into multiple ABR streams. The final step of packaging those streams into different formats, including HLS and MPEG-DASH, can occur within the cloud or at the edge. As a result, any effective monitoring solution must be able to capture, monitor and compare streams at any and all points along an OTT delivery path, whether they be in the cloud, or on premise.

Better OTT delivery with better data As TV broadcasters adopt IP technology including media over IP (NDI, SMPTE 2110) for production, engineers are able to track

48 and analyse detailed metadata, which can to capture and visualise transport stream delivery chain, CDN edge points, targeted help identify issues across the entire OTT and OTT data, and track critical video and ad-insertion, multi-language support, and delivery chain. Operators also need to be audio errors including signal loss, picture event-based channels require the expert able to keep tabs on digital program insertion freeze, and blackouts alongside data panels scrutiny of broadcast engineers. Fortunately, triggers (SCTE-35), loudness levels and displaying the bandwidth, URL and manifest the tools are available to enable centralized closed captions across multiple video sources information for multiple edge points. Specific monitoring of what is happening to your live within a single transport stream. bandwidth thresholds can also be configured video content beyond playout. When it comes to monitoring live to raise alarms when ingest encoders or edge Broadcast logging has evolved from a channels over multiple OTT streams and points go below or above what is expected. narrow compliance role to a much broader ABR profiles, it is no longer practical for As targeted advertising becomes an range of applications encompassing display panels to mirror all the possible video increasingly important revenue stream, the monitoring, analysis and revenue-generating outlets. The human eye simply can’t monitor ability to report on specific edge location functions for broadcasters, MVPDs and OTT so many different profiles simultaneously. streams including SCTE-35 triggers and providers. Indeed, the humble logging system To address this issue, one needs to have a monitor replacement content streams is has become a valuable tool that is not only monitoring solution that aggregates and becoming imperative. used by compliance officers, but which also displays an array of information for use in By being able to flexibly deploy software provides broadcast engineers with a means to master control rooms. This solution should on premises, within virtualized environments, review and track down on-air incidents. allow OTT operators to custom-configure or in the cloud, broadcasters can log, analyse, Logging, monitoring, and analysis tools both data and video information panels and monitor OTT streams from anywhere which are designed for experienced broadcast for monitoring transcoded feeds and edge within a single unified interface. Using engineers must deliver the same high level streams. such software, operators can reconcile and of service quality to mobile devices usually By being able to dynamically arrange compare originating transcoder outputs to expected for primary screens, hybrid set-top how specific information is displayed, CDN edge points using both traditional boxes and smart TVs. engineers and master control room staff broadcast and data-centric panels. Having a unified system for monitoring are given a high-level view of all transport compliance and identifying issues across all streams, including incidence alarms, in Making quality control work for you traditional and OTT playouts, such as those a context they understand and are well- With the advent of OTT services, playout we have developed at Mediaproxy, is critical trained in. Extensive live-stream monitoring is no longer the final point of quality in reigning in a complexity both now and into and post-broadcast reporting tools are able control. Going further down the content the future. �

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OTT Executive 49 Spring 2019 Magazine Executive Q&A Defining the “Plus” in CDN

Interview by Kurt Michel with Mike Palackdharry, Limelight Network’s Senior Vice President, Strategic Solutions

urt Michel recently connected with Mike capacity of our CDN to help our customers Palackdharry, SVP, Strategic Solutions to easily reach massive global audiences Mike Palackdharry is K the Senior Vice Presi- at Limelight Networks to chat about how and have direct peering relationships with dent, Strategic Solu- Limelight Networks is helping to transform almost 1,000 ISP and last-mile providers to tions at Limelight the way customers can view live streaming. reduce the number of hops that video needs Networks. Mike has more than 30 years of to travel to reach viewers. In addition, we senior executive expe- Kurt: Limelight has been a key provider in have optimized our software to deliver online rience focused on B2B our industry since 2001, initially as a CDN, video with the highest possible quality and business transforma- tion and acceleration. and then adding value-added services as the guaranteed lowest video rebuffer rates. He joined Limelight from Aquiire, Inc., where as the need for them arose. Can you provide As streaming services become more President and CEO, he successfully re-imagined and some perspective on the last few years – prevalent and move to live broadcasts and rebuilt the company and greatly increased revenue how the industry is changing, how you are OTT multi-player gaming, content providers before the successful sale of the company. In addi- tion, he was President of Nationwide Energy Part- responding, and amidst this change, what understand the need to get content as close to ners where he doubled the size of the company in are the core elements of a successful OTT the user as possible. The next generation OTT just three years. Prior to that, Mike was SVP and GM platform? battlefield will move from cloud computing for Convergys Corporation when he led the global to edge computing. One of the many benefits telecommunications practice. Mike: Consumer viewing habits have shifted of the Limelight and Ericsson partnership is significantly over the years. Online video that it positions Limelight and Ericsson Edge streaming devices. Supporting delivery to viewership as well as consumer expectations Gravity for the launch of 5G networks and multiple devices is no longer a “should I?” it’s for a broadcast-quality online viewing technologies. Together, Limelight and Edge a “must do.” This means supporting multiple experience continue to grow. Viewers are Gravity will have the most comprehensive different streaming formats including HLS, no longer satisfied to just have the ability to and advanced content delivery capabilities MPEG-DASH, MSS, and more. In addition, watch programs on their own schedule. They coupled with a landscape-changing edge content needs to be delivered in different expect high-quality video that plays reliably platform for operators, content providers and resolutions and bitrates to accommodate without rebuffering. In fact, in our latest State application providers alike. viewers with different bandwidth and screen of Online Video 2018 report, global viewers sizes. Encoding and storing all of these said they would only let an online video Kurt: Does device proliferation (types and different combinations adds additional rebuffer 2.2 times before they stop watching, software versions) continue to be a significant cost and complexity to the workflow. To down from 2.7 times two years earlier. issue for you and your customers? help simplify the content creation and Limelight has invested in deploying its management process, Limelight offers own global private network that connects Mike: The number and different types of just-in-time video packaging for both live our more than 80 global delivery locations. devices being used to watch online video and on-demand content. Limelight MMD- Limelight’s private network bypasses typical continues to create challenges for OTT Live and MMD-OD automatically converts internet bottlenecks and provides a more providers. Viewers are watching from a live and on-demand video content to the secure environment for delivering video. We variety of devices such as smartphones, correct format, resolution, and bitrate as it is have also continued to expand the reach and tablets, set-top boxes, gaming consoles, and requested by viewers. So, rather than creating and storing all of the possible combinations, video is automatically packaged in the correct format for the device that is requesting it and is sent to the viewer over Limelight’s high capacity private network. This simplifies the process for delivering high-quality video to any device.

Kurt: Streaming Video has become ubiquitous. Entertainment, Enterprises, Schools, Municipalities, Retail, etc. Do Limelight’s services/solutions fit particularly well for any particular segment(s), and if so, how?

Mike: Limelight has a range of video

50 delivery solutions that help organizations continuous improvement in live broadcast making bids on their computers or phones in of any size or workflow easily manage and and undetectable latency to improve the real time. And online video gamers can play deliver live and on-demand video. At the high user experience around the globe in multiple against each other and watch their favorite end, Limelight’s massive scale and capacity verticals. Live video content is becoming gamers in real time. These interactive online is able to handle the largest live events and increasingly popular online. Whether it’s experiences are not possible with broadcast deliver VOD content for the largest OTT live linear streaming of traditional broadcast and will fundamentally change how people providers. For smaller SMB organizations networks by MVPDs, major live sporting watch live events. such as schools, municipalities, startup OTT events, or newer types of content such as services, etc., Limelight has integrated an streaming of video gamers playing online, Kurt: Last fall, you announced an agreement Online Video Platform (OVP) that simplifies the amount of live content available online with Ericsson Edge Gravity (nee Ericsson the process of managing, publishing, and is growing rapidly. However, the inherent UDN). Can you describe the nature of that even monetizing video libraries. And because delays of 30 seconds or more for most live agreement, and some of your initial results? Limelight’s OVP is fully integrated with our online streaming has impeded the adoption CDN, we can both manage and deliver video of live streaming. Sports fans don’t want Mike: Ericsson Edge Gravity and Limelight content, simplifying the process with a best- to learn about a big play from social media Networks embarked on a unique and industry of-breed single vendor integrated solution. before they see it online. Reducing the changing partnership in October of 2018. Limelight is squarely focused on video latency of live streaming is becoming “the The partnership combines Limelight’s streaming and delivering the real-time next big problem” that needs to be tackled industry leading CDN technology and one experience, both of which differentiate us for live streaming to replace broadcast of the world’s largest TCPIP networks with from our competitors. We’ve invested heavily television. Ericsson’s incredible network presence, in ensuring a device-agnostic, real-time Limelight offers a range of low-latency technology stack and operator footprint experience independent of global location. live streaming solutions and edge capabilities to transform how content is delivered and The Ericsson Edge Gravity partnership will that can reduce latency to less than one edge platforms are defined. The partnership accelerate our capabilities and push our second. Limelight Realtime Streaming offers will enable more than 210 global points of streaming capabilities even closer to the user. sub-second streaming to viewers anywhere presence, over 1,000 last mile connections, a in the world using standard web browsers. dedicated private backbone and unparalleled Kurt: This is a 2-part question: Our industry It also offers integrated data streaming along edge compute and application capabilities. has always had “the next big problem” to with video, which opens up a host of new We will truly redefine how operators and tackle in order to be successful. What do interactive workflows. Now, live sports content providers think about content you think is “the next big problem” that streams can include realtime statistics about delivery. Although early in the partnership, the industry must tackle? How is Limelight your fantasy team or include integrated we’re well on our way in delivering these committed to helping solve this problem? in-event sports betting opportunities on new capabilities to several of the world’s the same screen. Live auctions can include largest operators and content providers. 2019 Mike: Limelight is committed to delivering participants anywhere in the world who are will be an exciting year for the partnership. �

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OTT Executive 51 Spring 2019 Magazine Executive Insights The State of the OTT Business: How 5G and 4K Mobile Devices Change the Landscape By: Mark Donnigan

his year at the Consumer Electronics falling ARPUs, and a weakening commercial Show in Las Vegas, attendees witnessed environment. The HEVC advanced video Mark Donnigan is T Vice President of Mar- 8K and 5G demonstrations that rivalled even codec, supported on 78% of iOS and 57% of keting for Beamr, a the most rapturous VR/AR showcases. With Android devices connected to the network, is video encoding tech- literally every major TV vendor announcing the best way to meet the quality expectations nology software com- pany. Mark has been a 8K TV displays, I began to reflect on of the consumer while providing bandwidth part of building several the state of the OTT business beginning relief for the network. trailblazing companies with consumer consumption patterns and in the video industry, their increasing quality expectations. The Change is coming, thanks to OLED including VUDU. He’s held board positions with the CEA; and actively par- conclusion I reached is that the landscape is displays, 4K, and HDR. ticipates in industry consortiums, including UltraVi- set to change, and here’s why. The first proof point that change is olet and the SVA. Mark travels and speaks widely on 8K won’t be a significant technology coming is that consumers are increasingly the future of entertainment services and video tech- nology around the world. Mark is also the cohost of driver for TV sales until 2022 or later, but 8K walking around with beautiful OLED-driven The Video Insiders podcast will drive ubiquitous 4K across all devices 4K capable devices in their pockets, such as including high end mobile phones, as the the iPhone X, XS, S9, and - consumer will perceive 4K to be the new fresh off MWC Barcelona - the Sony Xperia screen with the quality of the video they HD. Though 4K entertainment content will 1. These devices can reproduce HDR and distribute will stand out. And in the era of continue to be limited, video capture devices capture 4K with amazing quality. Regardless consumer churn, make no mistake, standing will all support 4K, which means UGC of the human eye’s resolution limits, it’s hard out is going to become a corporate directive. could be the largest source for 4K content to argue that the quality is awesome and We can debate the merits of sending over the next 12-18 months. Increased consumers can tell the difference, even on a higher resolution to a small screen, but as an display capabilities, combined with an 6.5 inch diagonal screen. industry, we’ve been here before. It was less overall increase in video consumption, So what does this mean for an OTT than five years ago that 720p was perfectly will make video the primary 5G driver service offering? After all, there is still very adequate for a mobile device. Yet, marketing for consumer applications. Video services little 4K native content available, right? This departments invested heavily to convince that fail to super-serve their users will face is true. But what it means is that the service consumers that 1080p was in fact “real HD.” decreasing subscriber counts, high churn, that best matches the capability of the user’s And, even though the bits/pixel were lower than 720p, and thus the absolute quality was reduced, 1080p became a requirement. If you are being asked for a technical differentiator, I’d submit that the easiest and quickest one you can make immediately is to upgrade your entire mobile ABR rendition ladder to include 1080p, and not at quality- crushing bitrates. This will of course require a rethinking of the old mobile bitrate ABR ladder that is still found in way too many workflows, and an advanced codec that can meet the quality/bitrate savings thresholds that are rising as traffic volumes are increasing. We can no longer assume that the customer “won’t see the difference” between a high quality encode and low quality encode on mobile. In fact, we should assume that the consumer now has a device that is capable of displaying quality that may rival their 5-7 year old TV set with contrast, color clarity, and resolution.

5G and mobile first entertainment services will shuffle the video landscape.

52 video streaming playback environments, and here’s a summary. Starting with in-home playback, if your customers have purchased a TV, game console, Roku box or Apple TV in the last 3 to 4 years, you can be nearly guaranteed that it supports HEVC without any need for additional licensing or a player upgrade. HEVC is now resident in almost every SoC (system-on-a-chip) that goes into any mid- to high-end CE video device. Since 2015, industry reports show this group of products numbers 400 million. The website caniuse.com reports that every UHD TV manufactured after 2014 supports HEVC natively. Regarding mobile device support for HEVC, most operators today could cover up to 75% of their users with HEVC alone. ScientiaMobile, who maintains network device access profiles by receiving data from the largest wireless operators in the Video providers can no longer stand by waiting for content to drive technology. world, reports that a whopping 78% of all iOS requests come from devices that support hardware-accelerated HEVC The second proof point of impending For traditional service providers who decoding. And 57% of Android smartphone change is what will happen when the are reallocating pricing inside the bundle requests are from devices that support HEVC convergence of faster, more stable broadband, from video services to broadband, there is a decoding. powered by 5G, connects with the consumers’ cautionary flag here. With a T-Mobile or other The trends we’ve examined clearly ability to reliably capture and display 4K large mobile operator offering cost effective, show an ever more demanding consumer (and eventually 8K) on the phone. Even high performance courtesy of who wants content that shows off the full today with LTE, in most markets, a viewer 5G, combined with the right set of direct or capabilities of their viewing device. But this can receive reliable bandwidth to stream high third-party video partnerships, this could be a same user is now consuming more content, quality 1080p over the radio antennae. But bigger threat than the myriad of OTT service further congesting the network; a fact that is high-speed mobile networks powered by 5G offerings that are set to launch this year. colliding with a shift from managed services are positioned to unleash a tsunami of video This all means that video providers can no to unmanaged/OTT video distribution. And traffic on the network like we’ve never seen longer stand by waiting for content to drive while this is creating additional internal before. the adoption and implementation of next technical tension for service operators Service providers who are building their generation video technologies, specifically already facing technical shifts and business technology stacks to take advantage of HEVC. The chicken and the egg problem model fracturing, some amazingly continue this bandwidth windfall will be in a prime is about to be cracked open by T-Mobile, status quo strategies—even while new position to deliver a measurably better , and others, who are going to bring to entrants are launching services that give the experience to the consumer. This position market mobile-first video offers centered on consumer more for less. will benefit them in accelerated customer HEVC because they know their customers’ Will disruption and opportunity come acquisition numbers, reduced churn, and device can support a better codec which will from 5G and better display technologies, or higher ARPUs, as consumers will be able allow them to transmit a better experience at will it be from something that has yet to even to clearly differentiate the quality as being higher quality, by matching the video to the emerge? We don’t really know. But there is no better. capabilities of the screen (4K, HDR). doubt that the landscape for video technology The hoopla around 5G that is coming and business models is shifting, and the only from mobile operators should be taken A codec war, this is not. question is where you’ll be when the shifts seriously, not only for the way 5G will enable Painting technology transitions as a war settle down. “Stay the course” is probably not video distributors to delight their users with between the prevalent standard and emerging a viable option for today’s video provider. � better quality and higher resolution streams, or next-generation ones makes for catchy but also because these same carriers will use headlines, but it rarely describes what is really 5G to launch competitive video offers that occurring. Thus, it’s time to move beyond the should not be brushed away. codec war analogy, and recognize that video To amplify the connection between 5G services are now in the most competitive and video services, T-Mobile spoke at a Citi environment ever—where the surest path to investor conference in Las Vegas the week of success is to move beyond H.264 to HEVC. CES, and Mike Sievert, President and COO There are more than 2 billion HEVC devices of T-Mobile commented, “Broadband and in the field today and the time is now to up- video go hand in hand…” Sievert went on level the quality of experience that we as an to comment that the opportunity for a video industry are delivering to our consumers. service definitely exists before T-Mobile’s It is completely reasonable to ask what 5G broadband service is fully launched. support is available for HEVC across all

OTT Executive 53 Spring 2019 Magazine Executive Q&A OTT Evolution from an OVP Perspective Interview by Nichole Janowsky with Gideon Gilboa, SVP of Product and Marketing, Kaltura

ichole sits down with Kaltura’s Gideon challenges your customers are facing, and Gilboa for a candid interview regarding how are you helping to address them? Gideon Gilboa is the N Senior Vice President the evolution of OTT. of Product and Mar- Gideon: Our customers are facing two keting for Media & Nichole: How is the Online Video Platform primary challenges: Telecom at Kaltura. He spent the past 17 years (OVP) market evolving? What are the key on the product and customer and industry drivers today? • The need to launch a scalable cloud TV marketing side of the service (bringing the best of pay TV and OTT video infrastructure technology business. Gideon: In the past decade OTT has evolved together) that is revenue-generating and can Prior to joining Kaltura, at NDS and later at Cisco, from being a side dish or a complimentary become a significant business contributor in he held various research, product marketing, prod- offering to broadcast TV to the main dish the future. uct strategy and product management leadership – a replacement for broadcast TV. Pay TV positions. Throughout his career Gideon played a key role in bringing new video products to market in- service providers and media companies • The ability to differentiate their service cluding the first DVR, DRM, addressable advertising are replacing traditional broadcast TV in a highly crowded marketplace where the and some of the first OTT systems. distribution with OTT to remain relevant to typical consumer household may have 2-3 their consumers. From a technology point of OTT services. view, the platforms that are delivering OTT also needed to evolve. To replace traditional To solve the first challenge, we’ve evolved With regards to differentiation, we strongly TV, neither OTT nor OVP were good enough. our online video platform over the past few believe the basis for differentiation on the They weren’t “pay TV grade.” The platforms years to become a Cloud TV platform via technology side is data. Data is the basis for required must combine the best of pay TV- both acquisitions and organic development. our Targeted TV solution that brings data scalability, reliability, customization, and For example, Kaltura’s TV Platform offers a into every aspect of the platform and utilizes security with the best of OTT interactivity, 99.995% availability SLA which means the it to create targeted experiences that increase agility, multi-screen and personalization. platform can’t be down for more than two engagement, retention and monetization. At Kaltura, we refer to this new grade of minutes per month. This is required to assure platform “Cloud TV”. We believe that for that pay TV operators and media companies Nichole: What do you see as the most any online video platform to flourish in the can rely on their service as a key part of significant technical barrier(s) facing future, they must become Cloud TV grade. their business strategy and have a stable and continued online video growth? What can Nichole: What are the key business scalable platform. you do to mitigate?

To succeed in today’s environment, Kaltura believes the platform needs to become “Cloud TV” grade.

54 Nichole: How is the proliferation of OTT viewing devices (TVs, STBs, Dongles, Phones, Tablets, etc.) shaping consumer decisions on OTT service selection, content discovery, and the overall user experience?

Gideon: One thing is clear; there are more options than ever before for consumers to access OTT services via the big screen. This is important because its part of the evolution we mentioned above of OTT services replacing TV. Take for example Android TV and how it evolved over the last couple of years with the Operator Tier offering. TV service providers can now create a branded experience on the big screen for consumers in a quick, cost effective manner, unlocking all the functionality platforms that OVPs like Kaltura can offer to this application: personalization, advanced content discovery, multi-screen viewings, etc. At the same time, Kaltura offers a complete cloud TV service. Android TV keeps an open experience for the user with access to all of the Google services. provide the professional services around it to So what we get is a new type of TV offering: Gideon: Today, broadcast TV delivers live integrate and customize the platform based branded, feature rich, big screen quality and video to mass audiences in a much more on the specific needs of that customer. scale. Everyone wins. scalable and cost-effective way. The Internet We also put a lot of emphasis on our wasn’t designed for broadcast and there is partner ecosystem. We built the PaaS and Nichole: It sounds like all this innovation work to be done to make live video streaming SaaS layers to be open from the ground up and and evolution is good for the viewers – and both scalable and economically viable. At enable integrations with multiple ecosystem those providers who can align themselves Kaltura we spend a lot of effort on our player partners. We have over 140 technology properly to OTT’s “new normal.” Thanks for and on analyzing low level QoE information partners integrated with our platforms today speaking with us. � to adjust the player to deliver the most and there are many more developers who optimized video experience. We believe data just use the open source portions of the PaaS plays an important role here as well. layer.

Nichole: On your website, you identify Nichole: What do you see ahead in the online four different video markets – Business, video space that has either the potential Education, Cloud TV, and PaaS. Could to create more disruption, or the ability to you provide a high-level view of how your reduce the disruption and bring the industry offerings to these markets differ? Technical? closer to an equilibrium, or “new normal?” Packaging/Business Model? Gideon: In some ways we think disruption in Gideon: Kaltura’s mission is to power any this industry HAS become the “new normal.” video experience for any organization. The streaming wars are still largely unsettled, We do that today for many industries with and the business strategies are continuing industry-specific solutions and cross- to change. For example, not so long ago, industry solutions for any use case: media people thought that SVOD with an “all you and entertainment, education, enterprise; for can eat” subscription was the new normal; human capital management, communication we see folks like Netflix who championed and collaboration, sales, marketing and this approach, testing differentiated pricing customer service. per subscriber and talking about an ad-based Our video cloud includes a common PaaS model. The point is, it will take some time layer that exposes APIs in areas such as before things settle, and those entering this ingest, transcoding, analytics, monetization, market need to take this into account. If engagement and more. This is used across video providers choose a platform that’s all verticals and use cases we serve. On not agile and can’t grow and adapt as your top of that we build industry and segment- business needs change, they are likely to find specific Video SaaS products. For example, themselves stuck. The partnership between our cloud TV platform is designed for the cloud TV service provider and their media and telco customers. In Media and technology vendors is critical in order to stay Telecom specifically, we typically sell a on top of things in these evolving times. complete cloud TV service and know how to

OTT Executive 55 Spring 2019 Magazine Best Practices Handy Checklist for Ensuring User Experience When Delivering Video Streams at Large Scale

By: Philippe Mouawad

By 2019, 80 percent of the world’s internet • The network bandwidth consumed which traffic will be video” says Cisco.1 can be huge Philippe Mouawad “ is an Architect and Video is already a critical media for technical expert for business and its importance will keep • The location of your customers particularly Ubik-Ingenierie where growing. But every additional second in for world-wide events he leads (among other things) the develop- video start or lag while playing increases the ment of UbikLoadPack risk of abandonment on your website. Not to • The unknown potential traffic you need to a set of Commercial mention the potential bad buzz that would anticipate Plugins for JMeter al- lowing to load test vid- result from it. eo streaming protocols like MPEG-DASH, Http Live • When hosting major events, the potential Streaming (HLS), HSS, HDS, and other technologies Ensuring video performance is a major unexpected peak traffic from a competitor like ERP applications, GWT, JavaSerialization, and challenge due to several factors, the most experiencing serious performance problems. Flex. Since 2011, Philippe Mouawad is a developer, committer and member of JMeter (the Open Source important ones being: This can be an unexpected opportunity to win reference for Load Testing) Project Management new customers if you correctly handle the Committee at the Apache Software Foundation. He • The number of third parties involved: load or a new “snowball effect” for the next is also the co-author of the book “Master JMeter : streaming actor. from load testing to DevOps.” -Your servers -Your encoding software delivering the For the end customer, problems can manifest 3. Delay in streaming, as a customer, you stream formats themselves in at least three ways: would be watching your favorite sport -The (CDN) event in the past. You can guess the future caching your content chunks and 1. Initial buffer fill (which is the time it takes dissatisfaction of your subscribers. manifests for your video to start playing), the shorter -The telecom operator network your data your video is, the faster it should start. As a To ensure that your content is distributed is crossing customer you would see the throbber appear. under the best possible conditions, you -The Digital Rights Management should anticipate and run load tests on your (DRM) servers delivering the keys for 2. Lag time, which is the time for which the infrastructure so that you can fine tune, add your protected content video pauses waiting for the next chunks to and optimize software layers (caching, CDN), -And finally the playing device of your come. Again, the dreaded throbber would and know your users’ future experience customer appear. before they let you know how bad it is. To ensure your load tests are useful, here are some hints that will help you succeed in your testing:

• Ensure you don’t test the cache, which makes you think everything is running smoothly while it’s not.

-Use many video streams: your users will surely watch different movies or ads, you need to reflect that in your tests. SPORTS TV Media -Vary bandwidth: your users don’t have the same network bandwidth, particularly mobile users. Vary the bandwidth available to your virtual users to simulate the different networks and know the lags per bandwidth. -Vary source locations: your users will probably come from different locations in your country or worldwide, ensure you use different source locations. The cloud is your friend.

56 • Check all the streaming formats you deliver. edge cases. Manual simulation of such • Monitor every stack involved in delivering streams is complex, time-consuming and the content to understand where the issue -To ensure your users have the best error-prone. comes from and fix it. experience, you know that you have to -Download audio streams that are deliver at least two or three of the most delivered in parallel with video. The • Test often and automate as much as you popular formats to target the largest streaming video includes streaming an can. Have you heard about the “shift left” audience (Apple HLS, MPEG-DASH, additional audio stream which doubles approach which aims at testing as soon as HSS). the number of requests to your servers possible? This approach ensures that every -Ensure you test all these formats under -Contact DRM servers to check rights. new version of your software/deployment load. This can be tedious, but fortunately, These can be third parties for which you infrastructure is tested earlier in the building there are tools that can help you. would define SLAs, but you can also process, allowing you to fix at lower cost, -Vary the bitrates requested by players to host them. In the latter case, you’ll need issues that you would be facing in production. know what quality you can deliver under to ensure they correctly handle the load. Tools like Jenkins CI and cloud deployment good conditions -Play stream that involves decoding. can help you achieve your goals. -Check the freshness of what you deliver! This is more a client (player) issue so it Solutions, such as UbikLoadPack, provide Have you heard this summer about this is less critical, but to ensure you provide an OOTB solution which answers almost all OTT service which delivered streaming the best experience, use popular and fast requirements of video streaming servers load football world cup matches with two codecs to encode your video. testing. � minutes delay? • Collect the critical metrics; load testing Reference: • Reproduce the players’ behavior. Load metrics differ from video streaming metrics. 1. http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/collateral/ testing streaming servers realistically is not Besides the usual metrics, like connect service-provider/visual-networking-index-vni/mobile- easy. A player does many things at the same and download time, you should track the white-paper-c11-520862.html time that can impact user experience. following in order to understand user experience: -Download video streams. This will occur on startup and while the player -Initial buffer time is playing to ensure video keeps -Lag times playing smoothly with no lag. Ensure -Lag ratio you reproduce live streaming player -Cache hit/miss ratio from potential behavior correctly, handling live stream CDN is more complex than VOD with a lot of -Age of the chunks

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OTT Executive 57 Spring 2019 Magazine Trends & Analysis

7 Predictions for Online Video in 2019

By: Jim O’Neill

emember when streaming was the the concept of device integration, content supplement to traditional broadcast and producers and distributors need to consider Jim O’Neill, Principal R Analyst at Ooyala, is pay TV? When live streaming a major event cloud integration as well. With the increasing an award-winning in- — like the Super Bowl, the World Cup or the role of AI, “polycloud” becomes common dustry expert and fu- Olympics – would “break the Internet?” vernacular. This concept acknowledges that turist who specializes in the convergence of A lot has changed in a few short years. Microsoft, Amazon and Google, for example, traditional TV and the And even David Bowie knew that ch-ch- offer similar core services -- but each has Internet. ch-changes meant we were going to need its own special expertise. Using multiple new ways to go forward. Well, look how far vendors will allow you to develop a more we’ve come. customized solution that uses the strengths of Recently I’ve seen articles proclaiming, each cloud, without making any sacrifices. mining produces true business insights and “TV isn’t dead.” Maybe not, but traditional opportunities. TV is struggling. U.K. telecom regulator 2. More M&A in Media & Entertainment , for example, found U.K. viewers We’re not done with M&E M&A. 5. Are OTT Services at The Saturation consume 5.1 hours of audiovisual content Consolidation makes it clear that control of Point? Not Even Close daily, but only 71% is from broadcast. The your content supply chain is crucial. On the Oddly, pundits like to compare OTT to other 29% is OTT. Among the 16-34 demo, horizon: traditional TV, positing that the bumper crop broadcast share is 46% (about 35% of the of OTT services has saturated the market, video they consume is NOT on a TV set). —The Justice Department swings and misses creating insurmountable challenges for new So, describing the health of traditional in its “re-effort” to disrupt the AT&T/Time entrants. That’s absurd. OTT is not traditional television viewing as “robust” is a bit of Warner deal; TV; it thrives on consumer choice, random disinformation, like telling the kids the —Hulu do-si-dos and changes partners interaction and its own ability to iterate goldfish isn’t dead, it’s just sleeping. Or as Comcast, Disney and AT&T find it and respond to the changing conditions saying that as viewers age, they’ll return impossible to come to mutual agreement on of new TV. AI will help niche producers to technology they’ve already discarded. how the service evolves; “mine” audiences globally, enabling smarter Just ask any newspaper publisher how that —AMC, Lionsgate, CBS, and Univision – solutions for distributors and consumers. In worked out in the age of the Internet. among others – are potential targets. 2019, Netflix and Amazon will continue to With that business out of the way, here’s grow, while audiences supplement with a what I see ahead in 2019: 3. Amazon breaks up the Google/Facebook revolving carousel of services. digital advertising duopoly 1. Say hello to the “polycloud” Google and Facebook controlled 58% of 6. Sports builds a new arena for larger While there is growing discussion here in the ad market in 2018; Amazon just 4%. In audiences – the app the pages of OTT Executive Magazine about 2019, Amazon will leverage its accumulated Every sports team, league and conference purchasing and browsing will go OTT because that’s where their data, along with consumer audience is. With the legalization of sports credit card data, especially betting in the U.S., sports will accelerate its as Facebook’s audience move online to appease the 64% of 25- to skews older. Look for a 34-year-old North American men expected double-digit share by 2020. to dabble in sports betting.

4. Artificial Intelligence 7. 5G is winning the race before it – Grows Up officially – even begins Huge spending on AI The next generation of cord cutters is by the industry’s biggest looming, this time wired broadband, as 5G players means we’ll see quickly ramps up to offer speeds and latency better management of data, performance to rival fiber. About two dozen allowing companies to carriers are expected to launch 5G in 2019; better utilize that data in another two dozen-plus are expected in 2020. advertising, content delivery, 5G wins before the race even officially starts. content development � and more. Better data 5G is winning the race before it even begins.

58 For more information: [email protected] May 29, 2019 • NYC Past Sponsors Past Speakers

OTT Executive 59 Spring 2019 Magazine